The polyacrylate anion exchangers are widely used in purification of heavy metal ions from wastewaters and different accompanying complexing agents. Such effluents containing the chelators (EDTA, NTA, HEDTA, DTPA, and IDA) are discharged from relevant industries such as printed circuits boards, plating on plastics, metal finishing and others. The sorption was studied as a function of phase contact time and pH by the batch technique. It was found that the removal of heavy metal ions in the presence of EDTA, NTA and IDA strictly depends on the phase contact time and pH values. Various kinetic models such as the pseudo first-order and the pseudo second-order as well as the intraparticle one were also tested to estimate the sorption rate. The equilibrium capacities of the studied anion exchangers for Cu(II), Zn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Pb(II) and Cd(II) in the presence of EDTA were the highest for Pb(II) and Cd(II). The order of sorption for Amberlite IRA 458, Amberlite IRA 958 as well as Amberlite IRA 67 can be as follows: Pb(II) > Cd(II) > Zn(II) > Cu(II) > Ni(II) > Co(II). The stability of forming complexes was also compared. The estimation of the capacities of anion exchangers under investigation by the continuous column studies was also carried out. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.