Cadmium is an element that occurs naturally in the earth’s crust. Pure cadmium is a soft, silver-white metal. Cadmium is not usually present in the environment as a pure metal, but as a mineral combined with other elements such as oxygen (cadmium oxide), chlorine (cadmium chloride), or sulfur (cadmium sulfate, cadmium sulfide). Cadmium is most often present in nature as complex oxides, sulfides, and carbonates in zinc, lead, and copper ores. It is rarely present in large quantities as the chlorides and sulfates. These different forms of cadmium compounds are solids that dissolve in water to varying degrees. The chlorides and sulfates are the forms that most easily dissolve in water. Cadmium may change forms, but the cadmium metal itself does not disappear from the environment. Knowing the particular form of cadmium, however, is very important when determining the risk of potential adverse health effects.
Cadmium compounds are often found in or attached to small particles present in air. Most people can not tell by smell or taste that cadmium is present in air or water, because it does not have any recognizable taste or odor. Soils and rocks contain varying amounts of cadmium, generally in small amounts but sometimes in larger amounts (for example in some fossil fuels or fertilizers).
Most cadmium used in the United States is extracted as a by-product during the production of other metals such as zinc, lead, or copper. Cadmium has many uses in industry and consumer products, mainly in batteries, pigments, metal coatings, plastics, and some metal alloys.
Pathways for cadmium in the environment
It is estimated that about 25,000 to 30,000 tons of cadmium are released to the environment each year, about half from the weathering of rocks into river water and then to the oceans. Forest fires and volcanoes also release some cadmium to the air. Release of cadmium from human activities is estimated at from 4,000 to 13,000 tons per year, with major contributions from mining activities, and burning of fossil fuels. Cadmium can enter the air from the burning of fossil fuels (e.g., coal fired electrical plants) and from the burning of household waste. Because of regulations, only small amounts currently enter water from the disposal of waste water from households or industries. Fertilizers often contain some cadmium that will enter the soil when fertilizers are applied to crops. Cadmium can also enter the soil or water from spills or leaks at hazardous waste sites if large amounts of dissolved cadmium are present at the site. The form of cadmium at these sites is important since many forms do not easily dissolve in water.
Cadmium that is in or attached to small particles can enter the air and travel a long way before coming down to earth as dust, or in rain or snow. The cadmium metal itself does not break down in the environment, but it can change into different forms. Most forms of cadmium stay for a long time in the same place where they first entered the environment. Some forms of the cadmium that goes into the water will bind to soil, but some will remain in the water. Some forms of cadmium in soil can enter water or be taken up by plants. Fish, plants, and animals can take some forms of cadmium into their bodies from air, water, or food. Cadmium can change forms in the body, but it also stays in the body for a very long time (years).
Exposure to cadmium
Food and cigarette smoke are the biggest sources of cadmium exposure for people in the general population. Average cadmium levels in U.S. foods range from 2 to 40 parts of cadmium per billion parts of food (2–40 ppb). Lowest levels are in fruits and beverages, and highest levels are in leafy vegetables and potatoes. Air levels of cadmium in U.S. cities are low, ranging from less than 1 to 40 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m³) (a nanogram is one billionth of a gram). Air levels greater than 40 ng/m³ may occur in urban areas with high levels of air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels. The level of cadmium in most drinking water supplies is less than 1 ppb, well below the drinking water standard of 50 ppb. Levels in drinking water, however, may vary greatly depending on local conditions. The average level of cadmium in unpolluted soil is about 250 ppb. At hazardous waste sites, cadmium levels have been measured in soil at about 4 parts cadmium per million parts (4 ppm; a part per million is 1,000 times more than a ppb) and in water at 6 ppm. In the United States, the average person eats food with about 30 micrograms (µg) of cadmium in it each day, but only about 1–3 µg per day of that cadmium from food is absorbed and enters the body. Cadmium exposure from smoking cigarettes may be a more serious health concern than cadmium in food. Smokers may double their daily intake of cadmium compared with nonsmokers. Each cigarette may contain from 1 to 2 µg of cadmium, and 40–60% of the cadmium in the inhaled smoke can pass through the lungs into the body. This means that smokers may take in an additional 1–3 µg of cadmium into their body per day from each pack of cigarettes smoked. Smoke from other people’s cigarettes probably does not cause nonsmokers to take in much cadmium.
Aside from tobacco smokers, people who live near hazardous waste sites or factories that release cadmium into the air have the potential for exposure to cadmium in air. However, numerous state and federal regulations control the amount of cadmium that can be released to the air from waste sites and incinerators so that properly regulated sites are not hazardous. The general population and people living near hazardous waste sites may be exposed to cadmium in contaminated food, dust, or water from unregulated releases or accidental releases. Numerous regulations and use of pollution controls are enforced to prevent such releases.
Workers can be exposed to cadmium in air from the smelting and refining of metals, or from the air in plants that make cadmium products such as batteries, coatings, or plastics. Workers can also be exposed when soldering or welding metal that contains cadmium. Approximately 512,000 workers in the United States are in environments each year where a cadmium exposure may occur. Regulations that set permissible levels of exposure, however, are enforced to protect workers and to make sure that levels of cadmium in the air are considerably below levels thought to result in harmful effects.
Pathways for cadmium in the body
Cadmium can enter your body from the food you eat, the water you drink, from particles it may be attached to in the air you breathe, or from breathing in cigarette smoke that contains cadmium. Higher amounts of cadmium can enter your body from the cadmium in air or smoke that you inhale (25 to 60% of the cadmium present) than from cadmium in foods you eat (about 5–10% enters the body). The cadmium not taken into your body through the lungs is breathed out. The cadmium not taken into your body from food or water leaves your body in feces. If you do not eat foods that contain enough iron or other nutrients, you are likely to take up more cadmium from your food than usual. Virtually no cadmium enters your body through your skin.
Most of the cadmium that enters your body goes to your kidney and liver and can remain there for many years. A small portion of the cadmium that enters your body leaves slowly in urine and feces. Your body can change most cadmium to a form that is not harmful, but too much cadmium can overload the ability of your liver and kidney to change the cadmium to a harmless form, and the harmful form may damage your health.
Health effects of cadmium
The potential for cadmium to harm your health depends upon the form of cadmium present, the amount taken into your body, and whether the cadmium is eaten or breathed. There are no known good effects from taking in cadmium. Breathing air with very high levels of cadmium can severely damage the lungs and may cause death. Breathing air with lower levels of cadmium over long periods of time (for years) results in a build-up of cadmium in the kidney, and if sufficiently high, may result in kidney disease. Other effects that may occur after breathing cadmium for a long time are lung damage and fragile bones.
To protect the public from the harmful effects of toxic chemicals and to find ways to treat people who have been harmed, scientists use many tests.
You should know that one way to learn whether a chemical will harm people is to determine how the bodyabsorbs, uses, and releases the chemical. For some chemicals, animal testing may be necessary. Animal testing may also help identify such health effects as cancer or birth defects. Without laboratory animals, scientists would lose a basic method for getting information needed to make wise decisions that protect public health. Scientists have the responsibility to treat research animals with care and compassion. Scientists must comply with strict animal care guidelines because laws today protect the welfare of research animals.
Additionally, there are vigorous national and international efforts to develop alternatives to animal testing. The efforts focus on both in vitro and in silico approaches and methods. For example, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) created the NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) in 1998. The role of NICEATM is to serve the needs of high quality, credible science by facilitating development and validation—and regulatory and public acceptance—of innovative, revised test methods that reduce, refine, and replace the use of animals in testing while strengthening protection of human health, animal health and welfare, and the environment. In Europe, similar efforts at developing alternatives to animal based testing are taking place under the aegis of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM).
We do not have many good studies on the health effects of cadmium in people. Exposures to cadmium throughout most of the world are currently regulated so there are relatively few people receiving high levels, and the effects from long-term low-level exposure to cadmium are hard to determine with the many other factors that can come into play. A number of studies on workers exposed to cadmium in the air have not resulted in convincing evidence that cadmium can cause lung cancer in humans. In animals studies, mice or hamsters that breathed in cadmium did not get lung cancer, but rats that breathed in cadmium did develop lung cancer. There is no good information on people to suggest that breathing cadmium can affect your ability to have children. Female rats and mice, however, that breathed high levels of cadmium had fewer litters, and their babies may have had more birth defects than usual. Breathing cadmium has also been shown to cause liver damage and changes in the immune system in rats and mice. There is no reliable information on people to indicate that breathing cadmium harms peoples’ liver, heart, nervous system, or immune system.
Eating food or drinking water with very high cadmium levels severely irritates the stomach, leading to vomiting and diarrhea, and sometimes death. Eating lower levels of cadmium over a long period of time can lead to a build-up of cadmium in the kidneys. If the levels reach a high enough level, the cadmium in the kidney will cause kidney damage, and also causes bones to become fragile and break easily. We do not have good direct information from people who have been exposed to cadmium to know if eating cadmium at levels, below which other toxic effects are not seen, might effect your ability to have children. Animals eating or drinking cadmium sometimes get high blood pressure, iron-poor blood, liver disease, and nerve or brain damage. We have no good information on people to indicate that the levels that people would need to eat or drink cadmium to result in these diseases, or if they would occur at all. Studies of humans or animals that eat or drink cadmium have not found increases in cancer, although additional research is needed to be more certain that eating or drinking cadmium definitely does or does not cause cancer. Skin contact with cadmium is not known to affect the health of people or animals because virtually no cadmium can enter the body through the skin under normal circumstances (i.e., without exposure to very high concentrations for long times or exposure to skin that was not damaged).
As a conservative approach, and based on the limited human data and the studies in rats, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that cadmium and cadmium compounds may reasonably be anticipated to be carcinogens. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that cadmium is carcinogenic to humans. The EPA has determined that cadmium is a probable human carcinogen by inhalation.
Health effects in children
This section discusses potential health effects from exposures during the period from conception to maturity at 18 years of age in humans. Potential effects on children resulting from exposures of the parents are also considered.
The health effects seen in children from exposure to toxic levels of cadmium are expected to be similar to the effects seen in adults (kidney, lung, and intestinal damage depending on the route of exposure). These effects are most easily seen in short-term high-level exposures. Harmful effects on child development or behavior have not generally been seen in populations exposed to cadmium, but more research is needed. It is also difficult to determine the cause of harmful effects on child behavior or development from exposures to low levels over long periods of time, which are the most likely exposures for children as well adults in the general population.
We do not know whether cadmium can cause birth defects in people. Studies in animals exposed to high enough levels of cadmium during pregnancy have resulted in harmful effects in the young. The nervous system appears to be the most sensitive target. Young animals exposed to cadmium before birth have shown effects on behavior and learning. There is also some information from animal studies that high enough exposures to cadmium before birth can reduce body weights and affect the skeleton in the developing young. Similar effects, however, have not been observed in humans. Humans may respond differently or the exposure levels in humans may be considerably below the levels that produced these adverse effects in animals. More research on human health effects is needed to answer these questions.
Most cadmium taken into the stomach and intestines passes through without being absorbed. At high enough levels, however, damage to the stomach and intestines can occur. A few studies in animals indicate that younger animals absorb more cadmium than adults. Animal studies also indicate that the young are more susceptible than adults to a loss of bone and decreased bone strength from exposure to cadmium. Animal studies also indicate that more cadmium is absorbed into the body from the diet if the diet is low in calcium, protein, or iron, or if the diet is high in fat (because fat slows down the passage of food in the gut and allows more time for absorption). Children who do not get enough iron, calcium, or protein may also absorb more cadmium.
Women with low levels of calcium or iron, due to multiple pregnancies and/or dietary deficiencies, may also absorb more cadmium when exposed to cadmium in food or water. Cadmium does not readily go from a pregnant woman’s body into the developing child, but some can cross the placenta. Cadmium levels in human milk can also be from 5 to 10% of the levels found in the mother’s blood.
Reducing risk of exposure to cadmium
If your doctor finds that you have been exposed to significant amounts of cadmium, ask your doctor if children may also be exposed. When necessary, your doctor may need to ask your state public health department to investigate.
You can reduce the risk of your family being exposed to cadmium by identifying potential sources of cadmium exposure (in or around your home, at work, or where your children play), and by taking measures to prevent your family members from being exposed. A balanced diet that includes enough calcium, iron, protein, and zinc will also help reduce the amount of cadmium that may be absorbed into the body from food or drink.
Take an inventory of items in and around your home that might contain cadmium. Examples include fungicides (cadmium chloride), batteries (nickel-cadmium batteries also called Ni-Cad batteries), and hobbies that use materials that contain cadmium (electroplating or welding of metals, some fabric dyes, ceramic and glass glazes). Generally, the label of ingredients for a product will list cadmium or a cadmium compound as an active ingredient, or you can contact the manufacturer and ask whether the item contains cadmium. If you think that a fertilizer might contain cadmium, ask the supplier or the manufacturer. The cadmium in these items would have to get into your body before it could do any harm. This could happen if, for example, a fungicide containing cadmium was accidentally or intentionally swallowed, or if Ni-Cad batteries were being burned in a waste incinerator and a family member was breathing in the smoke, or if you were welding metal alloys that contain cadmium or using a cadmium glaze on a piece of pottery and were breathing in fumes that contained cadmium. You can prevent these exposures by making sure that you and your family members do not accidentally swallow substances that contain cadmium or breathe in air contaminated with cadmium. All cadmium-containing fungicides or dyes should be properly stored, safely out of the reach of children. If you or your family members have a hobby where metals or materials that contain cadmium are being heated or welded, you should seek advice on proper ventilation of your workspace and the proper use of a safety respirator.
Nickel-cadmium batteries are not harmful when properly used, but can release cadmium fumes if burned in an incinerator or waste fire. Breathing in these fumes may be harmful to your health. Small children also may mistake Ni-Cad batteries for toys and may accidentally swallow them. If the battery case is damaged, then some cadmium could escape and come in contact with the stomach or intestines. Keep Ni-Cad batteries out of the reach of small children, and teach your older children that the contents in Ni-Cad batteries can be harmful to their health if swallowed or burned. Teach your family how to properly dispose of the batteries. Information on where to dispose of Ni-Cad batteries is available from your city or county waste disposal office or the office for a waste disposal service.
If you are using fungicides or fertilizers that contain cadmium on your lawn or garden, read the instructions to learn the safe way to use these materials. One possible route of exposure from fungicides or fertilizers would be from breathing in small particles of cadmium-containing dusts. Protective safety gear including dust masks are available at hardware and building supply stores.
If you have a water well and are concerned that your water may contain cadmium, you can have your water tested. Water filters that remove cadmium, as well as lead and other metals, from drinking water are also available at your local stores. You should ask for advice from your public health officials or from knowledgeable suppliers of water filters on the proper filter or filters to use for your water system.
It is sometimes possible to carry cadmium-containing dust from work on your clothing, skin, hair, tools, or other objects removed from the workplace. This is particularly true when working in buildings where there is smelting or refining of cadmium-containing metal ores, soldering or welding of metals that contain cadmium, or where cadmium batteries, coatings, or plastics are made. You may contaminate your car, home, or other locations outside work where children might be exposed to cadmium.
Your occupational health and safety officer at work can and should tell you whether chemicals you work with are dangerous and likely to be carried home on your clothes, body, or tools and whether you should be showering and changing clothes before you leave work, storing your street clothes in a separate area of the workplace, or laundering your work clothes at home separately from other clothes. If cadmium is being used in your workplace, there should be a material safety data sheet (MSDS) available at your place of work, as required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The MSDS information will include the chemical name(s) of any hazardous cadmium ingredients, fire and explosion data, potential health effects, how you get the chemical(s) in your body, how to properly handle the materials, and what to do in an emergency.
Your employer is legally responsible for providing a safe workplace and should freely answer your questions about hazardous chemicals. Your OSHA-approved state occupational safety and health program or OSHA can answer any further questions, and help your employer identify and correct problems with hazardous substances. Your OSHA-approved state occupational health program or OSHA will also listen to formal complaints you would like to make about workplace health hazards and will inspect your workplace, if necessary. Employees have a right to seek safety and health on the job without fear of punishment.
Potential sources of exposure to cadmium away from home include exposures at hazardous waste sites or from air near waste incinerators. Young children should not play near or in hazardous wastes sites, and regulations that prevent this activity are generally enforced. Proper enforcement of regulations also prevents releases of cadmium to the air from waste incinerators or to water from hazardous waste sites. If you or your family live near a hazardous waste site and you have reason to believe that regulations are not being enforced and that you or your children are being exposed to cadmium, contact your local health official and report your concern.
Medical tests for exposure to cadmium
You can be tested for exposure to cadmium in several ways. The amount of cadmium in your blood, urine, hair, or nails can be measured by some medical laboratories. The amount of cadmium in your blood shows your recent exposure to cadmium. The amount of cadmium in your urine shows both your recent and your past exposure. Cadmium levels in hair or nails are not as useful as an indication of when or how much cadmium you may have taken in, partly because cadmium from outside of your body may attach to the hair or nails. Tests are also available to measure the amount of cadmium inside your liver and kidneys. The results of these tests can help a doctor evaluate the risk of liver or kidney disease. However, these tests are too costly and inconvenient for routine use. Your urine can be tested to see if your kidneys are damaged. If you do have kidney damage, the urine tests do not prove that cadmium caused the damage.
Tellurium
Tellurium is a semimetallic, lustrous, crystalline, brittle, silver-white element. It is usually available as a dark grey powder, it has the properties both of the metals and the non metals. Tellurium forms many compounds corresponding to those of sulfur and selenium. When burned in air tellurium has a greenish-blue flame and forms tellurium dioxide as a result. Tellurium is uneffected by water or hydrochloric acid, but dissolves in nitric acid.
Applications
Tellurium is often used as an additive to steel and it is often alloyed to aluminum,copper, lead or tin. Tellurium is added to lead to improve its durability, strenght and resistence to corrosion. It can be used for cast iron, ceramics, blasting caps, solar panels, chalcogenide glasses. When added to rubber, tellurium speeds up the curing process and makes the product less susceptible to ageing and less likely to be affected by oil, which softens normal rubber.
Tellurium in the environment
Tellurium is present in coal at up to 2 ppm. This is probably the major source of this metal, which can be taken by plants from soil. Tellurium in plants can reach level as high as 6 ppm, although few food plants have more than 0.5 ppm and most have less than 0.05 ppm.
Samples of uncombined tellurium can be sometimes found, but they are extremely rare. There are some tellurium minerals (calaverite, sylvanite, tellurite), but none is mined as a source of the element. World production is around 220 tonnes/year. Major producers are USA, Canada, Peru and Japan. The reserves of this element have not been assessed.
Health effects of tellurium
Fortunately, tellurium compounds are encountered rarely by most people. They are teratogenic and should only be handled by competent chemists since ingestion in even small amounts causes dreadful smelling breath and appalling body odour.
Routes of exposure: The substance can be absorbed into the body by inhalation of its aerosol.
Inhalation risk: Evaporation at 20°C is negligible; a harmful concentration of airborne particles can, however, be reached quickly when dispersed. Effects of inhalation: Drowsiness. Dry mouth. Metal taste. Headache. Garlic odour. Nausea.
Effects of short-term exposure: The aerosol of this substance irritates the eyes and the respiratory tract. The substance may cause effects on the liver and central nervous system. Exposure may result in garlic-like breath. Medical observation is indicated. Ingestion: Abdominal pain. Constipation. Vomiting.
Chemical dangers: Upon heating, toxic fumes are formed. Reacts vigorously with halogens or interhalogens causing fire hazard. Reacts with zinc with incandescence. Lithium silicide attacks tellurium with incandescence. Combustible. Finely dispersed particles form explosive mixtures in air.
Environmental effects of tellurium
Not harmful or readily rendered harmless by natural processes.
When heated to decomposition, tellurium chloride may emit toxic fumes of tellurium and chlorine.
Antimony
Antimony is a naturally occurring metal typically found in ore deposits. [1] Antimony is widely used in industry and present in all kinds of everyday items. Most commonly, the metal has been used as a flame retardant in products as diverse as toys, car seat covers, engine covers for light aircraft, clothing for kids, and uniforms for fire fighters. Beyond this, antimony is used to produce glass and ceramics, to make pigments, and in batteries. [2]
In comparison to other toxic chemicals and metals like lead, arsenic, barium, and aluminum, antimony doesn’t get as many mentions. However, it should. Because antimony is widely used and present in so many everyday items, the health problems caused by exposure to toxic antimony compounds are a real threat.
How Are We Exposed to Antimony?
Exposure to antimony compounds generally happens one of two ways: occupational and therapeutic. Exposure symptoms and the problems that people may experience can differ greatly between the two. Additionally, although it’s not often cited as a prime source, it is worth mentioning that the EPA has warned that drinking water with high antimony levels, over a period of years, could cause health problems. [1]
Occupational Exposure to Antimony
Some people work in industries or locations where toxic antimony compounds are more prevalent and this puts them in greater danger of suffering from related health problems. By far, those who have the greatest chance of coming into contact with toxic levels of antimony are port workers.
Why? Because antimony is used in brake pad systems for heavy weight vehicles, and port workers are exposed to that kind of traffic on a daily basis. The toxic compound is emitted from port vehicles and the workers breathe it in through their lungs. In one particular study researching antimony in the blood, a group of dockworkers had the highest levels of antimony ever reported. [3]
Perhaps the most frightening aspect to occupational exposure is the prevalence of additional toxins that co-exist. If an industrial plant has antimony present, isn’t it reasonable to assume other toxic compounds may be around too?
Surprisingly, one occupation that doesn’t show toxic levels of antimony is firefighting. Despite the fact that firefighters have been wearing flame-retardant uniforms that contain antimony since the 1960s and several people have raised concerns about this over the years, several studies have shown that fire retardant clothing doesn’t raise antimony toxicity levels. [4] [5]
Therapeutic Exposure to Antimony
A second group of people at risk for antimony exposure is patients suffering from schistosomiasis and leishmaniasis. Antimony is used as a part of the therapy for these conditions and can sometimes have toxic side effects that lead to pancreatitis and cardio toxicity. [6]
Health Dangers of Antimony
In general, how your body reacts to a toxic level of antimony will depend on how you were exposed. Those who breathed in the compound, like the port workers mentioned above, may suffer from symptoms like pneumoconiosis, gastrointestinal problems, antimony spots appearing on their skin, and
respiratory irritation. However, if you come into contact with actual antimony dust, you can experience symptoms like depression, dizziness, headaches, vomiting, kidney damage, or liver damage. One compound—antimony trioxide—is even believed to be carcinogenic, and antimony poisoning has also been known to lead to Adams-Stokes syndrome. [6]
Efforts to Reduce Exposure to Antimony
Over the last few decades, workplaces have instituted guidelines that have reduced the incidence of antimony poisoning, and therapeutic drugs with antimony undergo strict quality control measures. In addition, patients are continually monitored to ensure that their antimony readings stay within acceptable levels. [6]
And while the EPA and EU both have water standards for antimony they claim are well below toxic levels, those in the UK may want to be careful drinking juice concentrates. There are no set standards and, just a few years ago, researchers discovered antimony levels that far exceed tap water requirements. [1] [7] [8]
Governments now monitor bottled water since toxic antimony can leak from the plastic bottles into the water. California even passed a law in 2009 requiring testing, despite the fact that the levels in bottled water are actually below those of tap water. [7] [8] [9]
Mitigating Your Own Risks
Reducing your exposure to antimony, or any toxin, requires you to take an inventory of your life and determine exactly where you’re receiving exposure. Are you drinking purified water? Do you have a water treatment system in your house? Do you work in an environment where antimony is present? You need to address these issues at the source. Once you’ve eliminated sources of toxins in your life, cleansing your body may be the next step to a cleaner, healthier you.
References:
Tin
Tin (Sn) is an element vital to human general health. Daily intake of tin ranges from 1 to 3 mg. In the past when tin cans and pans were used, tin intake was ten times bigger. Researches conducted on animals have shown that insufficiency of tin can cause reduced growth, loss of hearing, loss of hair and reduced feeding efficiency.
Tipton and Shafer have reported that after sudden death, traces of tin in human tissue had been found in brain, aorta, kidney, liver, muscle, ovary, spleen, pancreas, uterus, prostate and stomach but not in thyroid gland.
Benefits and Side Effects
Tin is connected to iodine in the same manner as calcium with magnesium. Iodine maintains thyroid gland while tin supports adrenals. Tin deficiency together with lack of vitamin C and vitamin B are causes of low adrenals. Since tin and adrenals are controlling the left side, this insufficiency leads to left-sided heart problems. This problem can then lead to breathing difficulties and asthma. Lack of tin may result in depression and fatigue while adding tin boosts energy and has positive effects on the mood. It can be also helpful with headaches, insomnia, digestion and skin problems as well as different pains and aches. Side effects of tin supplement can be digestive problems or skin reactions.
Reported toxicity of tin is connected to food tin containers where symptoms were nausea, vomiting and stomach pain. Excessive tin is swiftly excreted from organism and there are no long-term negative effects. Inorganic tin is much less toxic to human organism comparing to other elements like cobalt and copper.
In one research it was proven that tin can help with depression though the condition is usually associated with imbalance in levels of lithium, magnesium, copper, sodium, manganese and certain vitamins. Only in case where cause for depression doesn’t lie in low thyroid, low blood pressure, low adrenals and chemical imbalance, tin can relieve the condition.
Tin is ingredient of some toothpastes. It is added to asparagus for the taste and used as a remedy for stomach parasites.
Tin can be found in herbs like nettle, barberry, yarrow, licorice, senna, doggrass, juniper, milk thistle, valerian, lady slipper, althea, yellow dock, kelp, devils claw, pennyroyal, irish moss, blessed thistle, red clover, bilberry and dulse.
Tin is also available in all vegetables and fruits in small amounts. Plants absorb tin from the soil hence level of tin in them depend on quality of the soil.
Indium
Indium is an exciting new discovery that somehow has fallen “under the radar.” But there’s even a book about it – cleverly titled “Indium” – in with author Dr. Robert Lyons states, “”Let Indium turn back your biological clock. Researchers believe that Indium may help you look and feel years – even decades – younger.” He states that Indium users report a burst of youthful benefits including more energy, -enhanced senses of smell and taste, weight loss, more restorative and rejuvenating sleep, improvements in skin and hair tone and color, increased libido, and better moods.
Indium has been shown to have age-related benefits, including improving memory, increasing libido, keeping weight stable and regulating blood sugar levels. However, new research has found that indium helps improve the absorption of essential trace elements – such as copper, manganese, and chromium, copper and zinc – in the body, thereby allowing them to perform their functions more efficiently.
Dr. Henry Schroeder, author of “The Trace Elements and Man”, found in his early studies that Indium supplementation increased the utilization of trace elements by 142%.
How it Works
Indium appears to work via the hypothalamus/pituitary/adrenal (HPA) feedback loop complex.
Your hypothalamus is the key to homeostasis and parasympathetic functions such as breathing, body temperature, food and water intake, and stimulation of the gastrointestinal tract.
Your pituitary controls growth hormone release, sexual glands and the function of your adrenal glands.
Your adrenal glands produce sterols such as adrenalin, epinephrine, and cortisol. These hormones down regulate the effects of inflammation as well as the perception of pain, fatigue, and mental alertness.
Balancing the feedback of your HPA complex synchronizes the function and production of at least thirty-one hormones. This synchronization produces a feeling of euphoria and well-being in most users.
One of the theories regarding the aging process is that it involves the decreased production of certain hormones as we get older. Indium appears to counteract this by balancing and synchronizing the HPA complex, the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands. These hormones control sleep, metabolism, body temperature, appetite, blood pressure, sex desire and many other body functions.
Indium stimulates hormonal production back to youthful levels by stimulating the HPA master hormone producers. These hormones then circulate throughout the body and help prevent and fight various aspects of the aging process – for example, supplies of growth hormone are boosted, which controls metabolism and affects bone density.
Indium also potentiates your thyroid gland and supports proper thyroid levels, more calories are burned and weight is normalized.
Fitness/Training Applications
Immediate increased energy and strength is one of most reported effects of Indium by sports and fitness users. Most of the benefits of Indium occur within 5-10 days of supplementation.
Within one week the regular exerciser, who normally stop exercising due to muscular pain and fatigue should be able to increase their workout by 10% before reaching the pain threshold as indium helps reduce the painful buildup of lactic acid by removing it more quickly from the tissues.
You will find an extended limit to the activity as it hastens the removal of the lactic acid build-up in muscle mass. This causes the pain of lactic acid build-up to take longer to accumulate.
In one very recent study with Indium conducted in Budapest, Hungary, 13 of 15 members of the National Kung Fu Championship Team demonstrated significantly increased their stamina after eight weeks of indium supplementation.
Anecdotally, a group of distance runners reported 30% increase in running distance for the same time in just two weeks, and a group of weight lifters recently reported increasing their bench press by 40% in 60 days.
It also appears to aid or enhance the master hormone function (the pituitary and hypothalamus glands in particular) in the system. These glands direct the function of 40 endocrine glands and help balance 31 hormones.
Indium Supplementation is Safe Indium is water-soluble and does not remain in your system. Even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined Indium is totally safe even at 20,000 times the recommended dosage.
Additional reported benefits of Indium include:
– increased endurance
– improved memory
– better sleep
– help with migraine headaches
– healthier blood sugar levels (with some diabetic patients reducing their insulin by 80 %)
– normalization of blood pressure (with high blood pressure going down and low blood pressure going up)
– reduction in incidence of lip and lung cancers
– improved hair growth
– lessened menopause symptoms
– alleviation of hypertension
– more youthful appearance
– elevated immunity activity
– reduced severity and duration of colds
– drop in prostate PSA levels (as much as 75%)
– increased libido in both men and women
Cadmium
Cadmium is an element that occurs naturally in the earth’s crust. Pure cadmium is a soft, silver-white metal. Cadmium is not usually present in the environment as a pure metal, but as a mineral combined with other elements such as oxygen (cadmium oxide), chlorine (cadmium chloride), or sulfur (cadmium sulfate, cadmium sulfide). Cadmium is most often present in nature as complex oxides, sulfides, and carbonates in zinc, lead, and copper ores. It is rarely present in large quantities as the chlorides and sulfates. These different forms of cadmium compounds are solids that dissolve in water to varying degrees. The chlorides and sulfates are the forms that most easily dissolve in water. Cadmium may change forms, but the cadmium metal itself does not disappear from the environment. Knowing the particular form of cadmium, however, is very important when determining the risk of potential adverse health effects.
Cadmium compounds are often found in or attached to small particles present in air. Most people can not tell by smell or taste that cadmium is present in air or water, because it does not have any recognizable taste or odor. Soils and rocks contain varying amounts of cadmium, generally in small amounts but sometimes in larger amounts (for example in some fossil fuels or fertilizers).
Most cadmium used in the United States is extracted as a by-product during the production of other metals such as zinc, lead, or copper. Cadmium has many uses in industry and consumer products, mainly in batteries, pigments, metal coatings, plastics, and some metal alloys.
Pathways for cadmium in the environment
It is estimated that about 25,000 to 30,000 tons of cadmium are released to the environment each year, about half from the weathering of rocks into river water and then to the oceans. Forest fires and volcanoes also release some cadmium to the air. Release of cadmium from human activities is estimated at from 4,000 to 13,000 tons per year, with major contributions from mining activities, and burning of fossil fuels. Cadmium can enter the air from the burning of fossil fuels (e.g., coal fired electrical plants) and from the burning of household waste. Because of regulations, only small amounts currently enter water from the disposal of waste water from households or industries. Fertilizers often contain some cadmium that will enter the soil when fertilizers are applied to crops. Cadmium can also enter the soil or water from spills or leaks at hazardous waste sites if large amounts of dissolved cadmium are present at the site. The form of cadmium at these sites is important since many forms do not easily dissolve in water.
Cadmium that is in or attached to small particles can enter the air and travel a long way before coming down to earth as dust, or in rain or snow. The cadmium metal itself does not break down in the environment, but it can change into different forms. Most forms of cadmium stay for a long time in the same place where they first entered the environment. Some forms of the cadmium that goes into the water will bind to soil, but some will remain in the water. Some forms of cadmium in soil can enter water or be taken up by plants. Fish, plants, and animals can take some forms of cadmium into their bodies from air, water, or food. Cadmium can change forms in the body, but it also stays in the body for a very long time (years).
Exposure to cadmium
Food and cigarette smoke are the biggest sources of cadmium exposure for people in the general population. Average cadmium levels in U.S. foods range from 2 to 40 parts of cadmium per billion parts of food (2–40 ppb). Lowest levels are in fruits and beverages, and highest levels are in leafy vegetables and potatoes. Air levels of cadmium in U.S. cities are low, ranging from less than 1 to 40 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m³) (a nanogram is one billionth of a gram). Air levels greater than 40 ng/m³ may occur in urban areas with high levels of air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels. The level of cadmium in most drinking water supplies is less than 1 ppb, well below the drinking water standard of 50 ppb. Levels in drinking water, however, may vary greatly depending on local conditions. The average level of cadmium in unpolluted soil is about 250 ppb. At hazardous waste sites, cadmium levels have been measured in soil at about 4 parts cadmium per million parts (4 ppm; a part per million is 1,000 times more than a ppb) and in water at 6 ppm. In the United States, the average person eats food with about 30 micrograms (µg) of cadmium in it each day, but only about 1–3 µg per day of that cadmium from food is absorbed and enters the body. Cadmium exposure from smoking cigarettes may be a more serious health concern than cadmium in food. Smokers may double their daily intake of cadmium compared with nonsmokers. Each cigarette may contain from 1 to 2 µg of cadmium, and 40–60% of the cadmium in the inhaled smoke can pass through the lungs into the body. This means that smokers may take in an additional 1–3 µg of cadmium into their body per day from each pack of cigarettes smoked. Smoke from other people’s cigarettes probably does not cause nonsmokers to take in much cadmium.
Aside from tobacco smokers, people who live near hazardous waste sites or factories that release cadmium into the air have the potential for exposure to cadmium in air. However, numerous state and federal regulations control the amount of cadmium that can be released to the air from waste sites and incinerators so that properly regulated sites are not hazardous. The general population and people living near hazardous waste sites may be exposed to cadmium in contaminated food, dust, or water from unregulated releases or accidental releases. Numerous regulations and use of pollution controls are enforced to prevent such releases.
Workers can be exposed to cadmium in air from the smelting and refining of metals, or from the air in plants that make cadmium products such as batteries, coatings, or plastics. Workers can also be exposed when soldering or welding metal that contains cadmium. Approximately 512,000 workers in the United States are in environments each year where a cadmium exposure may occur. Regulations that set permissible levels of exposure, however, are enforced to protect workers and to make sure that levels of cadmium in the air are considerably below levels thought to result in harmful effects.
Pathways for cadmium in the body
Cadmium can enter your body from the food you eat, the water you drink, from particles it may be attached to in the air you breathe, or from breathing in cigarette smoke that contains cadmium. Higher amounts of cadmium can enter your body from the cadmium in air or smoke that you inhale (25 to 60% of the cadmium present) than from cadmium in foods you eat (about 5–10% enters the body). The cadmium not taken into your body through the lungs is breathed out. The cadmium not taken into your body from food or water leaves your body in feces. If you do not eat foods that contain enough iron or other nutrients, you are likely to take up more cadmium from your food than usual. Virtually no cadmium enters your body through your skin.
Most of the cadmium that enters your body goes to your kidney and liver and can remain there for many years. A small portion of the cadmium that enters your body leaves slowly in urine and feces. Your body can change most cadmium to a form that is not harmful, but too much cadmium can overload the ability of your liver and kidney to change the cadmium to a harmless form, and the harmful form may damage your health.
Health effects of cadmium
The potential for cadmium to harm your health depends upon the form of cadmium present, the amount taken into your body, and whether the cadmium is eaten or breathed. There are no known good effects from taking in cadmium. Breathing air with very high levels of cadmium can severely damage the lungs and may cause death. Breathing air with lower levels of cadmium over long periods of time (for years) results in a build-up of cadmium in the kidney, and if sufficiently high, may result in kidney disease. Other effects that may occur after breathing cadmium for a long time are lung damage and fragile bones.
To protect the public from the harmful effects of toxic chemicals and to find ways to treat people who have been harmed, scientists use many tests.
You should know that one way to learn whether a chemical will harm people is to determine how the bodyabsorbs, uses, and releases the chemical. For some chemicals, animal testing may be necessary. Animal testing may also help identify such health effects as cancer or birth defects. Without laboratory animals, scientists would lose a basic method for getting information needed to make wise decisions that protect public health. Scientists have the responsibility to treat research animals with care and compassion. Scientists must comply with strict animal care guidelines because laws today protect the welfare of research animals.
Additionally, there are vigorous national and international efforts to develop alternatives to animal testing. The efforts focus on both in vitro and in silico approaches and methods. For example, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) created the NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) in 1998. The role of NICEATM is to serve the needs of high quality, credible science by facilitating development and validation—and regulatory and public acceptance—of innovative, revised test methods that reduce, refine, and replace the use of animals in testing while strengthening protection of human health, animal health and welfare, and the environment. In Europe, similar efforts at developing alternatives to animal based testing are taking place under the aegis of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM).
We do not have many good studies on the health effects of cadmium in people. Exposures to cadmium throughout most of the world are currently regulated so there are relatively few people receiving high levels, and the effects from long-term low-level exposure to cadmium are hard to determine with the many other factors that can come into play. A number of studies on workers exposed to cadmium in the air have not resulted in convincing evidence that cadmium can cause lung cancer in humans. In animals studies, mice or hamsters that breathed in cadmium did not get lung cancer, but rats that breathed in cadmium did develop lung cancer. There is no good information on people to suggest that breathing cadmium can affect your ability to have children. Female rats and mice, however, that breathed high levels of cadmium had fewer litters, and their babies may have had more birth defects than usual. Breathing cadmium has also been shown to cause liver damage and changes in the immune system in rats and mice. There is no reliable information on people to indicate that breathing cadmium harms peoples’ liver, heart, nervous system, or immune system.
Eating food or drinking water with very high cadmium levels severely irritates the stomach, leading to vomiting and diarrhea, and sometimes death. Eating lower levels of cadmium over a long period of time can lead to a build-up of cadmium in the kidneys. If the levels reach a high enough level, the cadmium in the kidney will cause kidney damage, and also causes bones to become fragile and break easily. We do not have good direct information from people who have been exposed to cadmium to know if eating cadmium at levels, below which other toxic effects are not seen, might effect your ability to have children. Animals eating or drinking cadmium sometimes get high blood pressure, iron-poor blood, liver disease, and nerve or brain damage. We have no good information on people to indicate that the levels that people would need to eat or drink cadmium to result in these diseases, or if they would occur at all. Studies of humans or animals that eat or drink cadmium have not found increases in cancer, although additional research is needed to be more certain that eating or drinking cadmium definitely does or does not cause cancer. Skin contact with cadmium is not known to affect the health of people or animals because virtually no cadmium can enter the body through the skin under normal circumstances (i.e., without exposure to very high concentrations for long times or exposure to skin that was not damaged).
As a conservative approach, and based on the limited human data and the studies in rats, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that cadmium and cadmium compounds may reasonably be anticipated to be carcinogens. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that cadmium is carcinogenic to humans. The EPA has determined that cadmium is a probable human carcinogen by inhalation.
Health effects in children
This section discusses potential health effects from exposures during the period from conception to maturity at 18 years of age in humans. Potential effects on children resulting from exposures of the parents are also considered.
The health effects seen in children from exposure to toxic levels of cadmium are expected to be similar to the effects seen in adults (kidney, lung, and intestinal damage depending on the route of exposure). These effects are most easily seen in short-term high-level exposures. Harmful effects on child development or behavior have not generally been seen in populations exposed to cadmium, but more research is needed. It is also difficult to determine the cause of harmful effects on child behavior or development from exposures to low levels over long periods of time, which are the most likely exposures for children as well adults in the general population.
We do not know whether cadmium can cause birth defects in people. Studies in animals exposed to high enough levels of cadmium during pregnancy have resulted in harmful effects in the young. The nervous system appears to be the most sensitive target. Young animals exposed to cadmium before birth have shown effects on behavior and learning. There is also some information from animal studies that high enough exposures to cadmium before birth can reduce body weights and affect the skeleton in the developing young. Similar effects, however, have not been observed in humans. Humans may respond differently or the exposure levels in humans may be considerably below the levels that produced these adverse effects in animals. More research on human health effects is needed to answer these questions.
Most cadmium taken into the stomach and intestines passes through without being absorbed. At high enough levels, however, damage to the stomach and intestines can occur. A few studies in animals indicate that younger animals absorb more cadmium than adults. Animal studies also indicate that the young are more susceptible than adults to a loss of bone and decreased bone strength from exposure to cadmium. Animal studies also indicate that more cadmium is absorbed into the body from the diet if the diet is low in calcium, protein, or iron, or if the diet is high in fat (because fat slows down the passage of food in the gut and allows more time for absorption). Children who do not get enough iron, calcium, or protein may also absorb more cadmium.
Women with low levels of calcium or iron, due to multiple pregnancies and/or dietary deficiencies, may also absorb more cadmium when exposed to cadmium in food or water. Cadmium does not readily go from a pregnant woman’s body into the developing child, but some can cross the placenta. Cadmium levels in human milk can also be from 5 to 10% of the levels found in the mother’s blood.
Reducing risk of exposure to cadmium
If your doctor finds that you have been exposed to significant amounts of cadmium, ask your doctor if children may also be exposed. When necessary, your doctor may need to ask your state public health department to investigate.
You can reduce the risk of your family being exposed to cadmium by identifying potential sources of cadmium exposure (in or around your home, at work, or where your children play), and by taking measures to prevent your family members from being exposed. A balanced diet that includes enough calcium, iron, protein, and zinc will also help reduce the amount of cadmium that may be absorbed into the body from food or drink.
Take an inventory of items in and around your home that might contain cadmium. Examples include fungicides (cadmium chloride), batteries (nickel-cadmium batteries also called Ni-Cad batteries), and hobbies that use materials that contain cadmium (electroplating or welding of metals, some fabric dyes, ceramic and glass glazes). Generally, the label of ingredients for a product will list cadmium or a cadmium compound as an active ingredient, or you can contact the manufacturer and ask whether the item contains cadmium. If you think that a fertilizer might contain cadmium, ask the supplier or the manufacturer. The cadmium in these items would have to get into your body before it could do any harm. This could happen if, for example, a fungicide containing cadmium was accidentally or intentionally swallowed, or if Ni-Cad batteries were being burned in a waste incinerator and a family member was breathing in the smoke, or if you were welding metal alloys that contain cadmium or using a cadmium glaze on a piece of pottery and were breathing in fumes that contained cadmium. You can prevent these exposures by making sure that you and your family members do not accidentally swallow substances that contain cadmium or breathe in air contaminated with cadmium. All cadmium-containing fungicides or dyes should be properly stored, safely out of the reach of children. If you or your family members have a hobby where metals or materials that contain cadmium are being heated or welded, you should seek advice on proper ventilation of your workspace and the proper use of a safety respirator.
Nickel-cadmium batteries are not harmful when properly used, but can release cadmium fumes if burned in an incinerator or waste fire. Breathing in these fumes may be harmful to your health. Small children also may mistake Ni-Cad batteries for toys and may accidentally swallow them. If the battery case is damaged, then some cadmium could escape and come in contact with the stomach or intestines. Keep Ni-Cad batteries out of the reach of small children, and teach your older children that the contents in Ni-Cad batteries can be harmful to their health if swallowed or burned. Teach your family how to properly dispose of the batteries. Information on where to dispose of Ni-Cad batteries is available from your city or county waste disposal office or the office for a waste disposal service.
If you are using fungicides or fertilizers that contain cadmium on your lawn or garden, read the instructions to learn the safe way to use these materials. One possible route of exposure from fungicides or fertilizers would be from breathing in small particles of cadmium-containing dusts. Protective safety gear including dust masks are available at hardware and building supply stores.
If you have a water well and are concerned that your water may contain cadmium, you can have your water tested. Water filters that remove cadmium, as well as lead and other metals, from drinking water are also available at your local stores. You should ask for advice from your public health officials or from knowledgeable suppliers of water filters on the proper filter or filters to use for your water system.
It is sometimes possible to carry cadmium-containing dust from work on your clothing, skin, hair, tools, or other objects removed from the workplace. This is particularly true when working in buildings where there is smelting or refining of cadmium-containing metal ores, soldering or welding of metals that contain cadmium, or where cadmium batteries, coatings, or plastics are made. You may contaminate your car, home, or other locations outside work where children might be exposed to cadmium.
Your occupational health and safety officer at work can and should tell you whether chemicals you work with are dangerous and likely to be carried home on your clothes, body, or tools and whether you should be showering and changing clothes before you leave work, storing your street clothes in a separate area of the workplace, or laundering your work clothes at home separately from other clothes. If cadmium is being used in your workplace, there should be a material safety data sheet (MSDS) available at your place of work, as required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The MSDS information will include the chemical name(s) of any hazardous cadmium ingredients, fire and explosion data, potential health effects, how you get the chemical(s) in your body, how to properly handle the materials, and what to do in an emergency.
Your employer is legally responsible for providing a safe workplace and should freely answer your questions about hazardous chemicals. Your OSHA-approved state occupational safety and health program or OSHA can answer any further questions, and help your employer identify and correct problems with hazardous substances. Your OSHA-approved state occupational health program or OSHA will also listen to formal complaints you would like to make about workplace health hazards and will inspect your workplace, if necessary. Employees have a right to seek safety and health on the job without fear of punishment.
Potential sources of exposure to cadmium away from home include exposures at hazardous waste sites or from air near waste incinerators. Young children should not play near or in hazardous wastes sites, and regulations that prevent this activity are generally enforced. Proper enforcement of regulations also prevents releases of cadmium to the air from waste incinerators or to water from hazardous waste sites. If you or your family live near a hazardous waste site and you have reason to believe that regulations are not being enforced and that you or your children are being exposed to cadmium, contact your local health official and report your concern.
Medical tests for exposure to cadmium
You can be tested for exposure to cadmium in several ways. The amount of cadmium in your blood, urine, hair, or nails can be measured by some medical laboratories. The amount of cadmium in your blood shows your recent exposure to cadmium. The amount of cadmium in your urine shows both your recent and your past exposure. Cadmium levels in hair or nails are not as useful as an indication of when or how much cadmium you may have taken in, partly because cadmium from outside of your body may attach to the hair or nails. Tests are also available to measure the amount of cadmium inside your liver and kidneys. The results of these tests can help a doctor evaluate the risk of liver or kidney disease. However, these tests are too costly and inconvenient for routine use. Your urine can be tested to see if your kidneys are damaged. If you do have kidney damage, the urine tests do not prove that cadmium caused the damage.
Silver
What does silver do for your health?
Silver has numerous health properties that have been used across time and culture. It is a powerful antimicrobial agent that aids in cold and flu prevention, wound healing, and skin care. Silver also helps with internal heat regulation and circulation. When applied in the right quantity and manner, silver also provides protection against harmful electromagnetic radiation from cellphones and other electronics.
How does it work?
The benefits of silver are derived from its electrical and thermal conductivity—i.e. its ability to generate an electrical field that distributes electricity and heat around the body. Positively-charged silver ions create a conductive field that reflects electromagnetic radiation away from the body, much like a mirror reflects light. This field stimulates the body’s existing conductivity, improving blood circulation, temperature balance, and general healing.
These positively silver ions also bind to negatively charged oxygen receptors in bacteria, destabilizing their metabolic enzymes and causing them to suffocate.
How can you wear silver to reap these benefits?
Silver can be worn against the skin, where it is able to interact with your skin’s natural conductivity and provide the most benefits for any potential skin irritations, circulation trouble, or temperature imbalance.Wearing silver clothing externally provides a “shield” against everyday germs and bacteria, as well electromagnetic radiation—but lacks these other personal benefits.
In what situations would it best benefit you to wear silver?
Silver is best worn when either the immune system is weak or when the body faces a particularly challenging environment, such as travel, toxic urban environments, or hyper-connected office spaces, where we face heightened exposure to both germs and electronics.
Wearing silver gloves while working on your laptop, for example, will significantly improve your comfort, energy, and immunity by blocking your wrist’s exposure to laptop electrical fields, as well as preventing the spread of office colds.
Wearing silver on the plane or during travel keeps you clean and germ free, while adding to your overall comfort.
How will people feel after wearing silver?
Many people report much better sleep when wearing the silver eye-mask, due to the cooling properties of the material, its incredible softness, and the knowledge that you are protected from germs and radiation.
You can experience more balanced energy levels and moods while wearing silver during the day, at your computer or during travel— as you offset wifi and electrical disturbances, improve overall temperature balance and circulation, and maintain optimum hygiene and immunity.
What can you combine with silver to make the most of this?
Silver is best combined with a healthy, active lifestyle that includes physical activity, as well as mental exercises such as meditation, visualization and positive thinking. Our over-exposure to technology is as much a psychological as physical problem—and we all need to take proactive measures to protect our peace of mind, focus and mental clarity.
Anything else we should know about silver?
Symbolically, silver is connected to the moon, and yin modalities of Chinese philosophy. The color is said to stimulate calmness and tranquility, as it evokes the qualities of reflection, coolness and space.
Palladium
Palladium, together with rhodium, ruthenium, osmium, iridium, and platinum form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals (PGM). Palladium is a lustrous silver-white metal. It has a face-centered cubic crystalline structure, at ordinary temperatures it is strongly resistant to corrosion in air and to the action of acids. It is attacked by hot acids, and it dissolves in aqua regia. It forms many compounds and several complex salts. Palladium has a great ability to absorb hydrogen (up to 900 times its own volume).
Applications
Because of its corrosion resistance, a major use of palladium is in alloys used in low voltage electrical contacts. When it is finely divided, palladium forms a good catalyst and is used to speed up hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions.
Palladium is used extensively in jewelry-making in certain alloys called “white gold.” It may be alloyed with platinum or substituted for it. It is used in watch bearings, springs, and balance wheels and also for mirrors in scientific instruments.
In 1990, most catalytic converters relied on platinum to reduce emissions from car exhausts but, while this metal is still important, palladium is now the main ingredient because this is even more efficient at removing unburnt and partially burnt hydrcarbons from the fuel.
Palladium is nowadays more and more used in electrical appliances such as wide screen televisions, computers and mobile phones, in the form of tiny multi-layer ceramic capacitors, of which more than 400 billion are made each year.
For use in dentistry it is alloyed with silver, gold, and copper. Palladium salts are used in electroplating.
Palladium in the environment
Specimen of uncombined palladium are found in Brazil, and there are some minerals rich in palladium, but most of it is extracted as a by-product form nickel refining.
Palladium is found as the free metal associated with platinum and other platinum group metals in Australia, Brazil, Russia, Ethiopia, and North and South America, as well as with nickel and copper deposits (from which it is recovered commercially) in Canada and South Africa.
Health effects of palladium
Palladium is regarded as of low toxicity, being poorly adsorbed by the body when ingested.
It may cause skin, eye or respiratory tract irritation, may cause skin sensitisation.
Liquid may cause burns to skin and eyes. If swallowed, do not induce vomiting, if conscious give water, milk… In case of contact, flush eyes or skin with plenty of water.
Palladium compounds are encountered relatively rarely by most people. All palladium compounds should be regarded as highly toxic and as carcinogenic. Palladium chloride is toxic, harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. It causes bone marrow, liver and kidney damage in laboratory animals. Irritant.
However palladium chloride was formerly prescribed as a treatment for tuberculosis at the rate of 0.065 g per day (approximately 1 mg kg-1) without too many bad side effects.
Environmental effects of palladium
Do not allow material to be released to the environment without proper environmental permits. Palladium has little environmental impact. It is present at low levels in some soils, and the leaves of trees have been found to containg 0.4 ppm. Some plants, such as the water hyacinth, are killed by low levels of palladium salts but most plants tolerate it, although tests indicate that their growth is affected at levels above 3 ppm.
Rhodium
Rhodium, together with ruthenium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals (PGM).
Rhodium metal is lustrous and silvery white. Rhodium has a higher melting point and lower density than platinum. It has a high reflectance and is hard and durable. Upon heating it turns to the oxide when red and at higher temperatures turns back to the element. Rhodium it is unaffected by air and water up to 600 C. It is insoluble in most acids, including aqua regia, but is dissolved in hot concentrated sulfuric acid and it is attacked by molten alkalis.
Applications
Most metal (85%) goes into catalytic converters for cars. The major use of the metal is in alloys with platinum and iridium, giving improved high-temperature strength and oxidation resistance. These alloys are used in furnace windings, pen nibs, phonograph needles, high-temperature thermocouple and resistance wires, electrodes for aircraft spark plugs, bearings and electrical contacts.
The metal itself,is used to plate jewelry and the reflectors of searchlights, due to its brilliance and resistance to tarnish,
It is also a highly useful catalyst in a number of industrial processes, such as the BP-Monsanto process.
Rhodium in the environment
Rodhium occurs as rare deposits of the uncombined metal, for example in Montana, USA and in rare minerals. The metal, which is available commercialy, comes as a by product of the refining of certain copper and nickel ores which can contain up to 0.1% rhodium. Most rhodium comes from South Africa and Russia, and world production is around 16 toone per year. Estimated reserves are 3.000 tonnes.
Health effects of rhodium
Rhodium compounds are encountered relatively rarely by most people. There are almost no reported cases of human being affected by this element in any way. All rhodium compounds should be regarded as highly toxic and as carcinogenic. Compounds of rhodium stain the skin very strongly.
Flammable. Dust explosion possible if in powder or granular form, mixed with air. Reacts with oxygen difluoride causing fire hazard.
Routes of exposure: The substance can be absorbed into the body by inhalation of its aerosol.
Inhalation risk: Evaporation at 20°C is negligible; a harmful concentration of airborne particles can, however, be reached quickly when dispersed.
Health effects of exposure to the substance have not been investigated. Insufficient data are available on the effect of this substance on human health, therefore utmost care must be taken.
Environmental effects of rhodium
Do not allow material to be released to the environment without proper governmental permits. Rhodium is too rare for the amount of it in soils or natural waters to be assessed, and so its effect on the environment can be assumed to be nil. Test on plants have shown that it is the least toxic member of the platinum group of metals.
Ruthenium
Ruthenium, together with rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals (PGM).
Ruthenium is a hard, white metal. It does not tarnish at room temperatures, but oxidises in air at about 800°C. The metal is not attacked by hot or cold acids or aqua regia, but when potassium chlorate is added to the solution, it oxidises explosively. It dissolved in molten alkalis.
Applications
Ruthenium demand is rising: the metal find use in the electronic industry (50%) and the chemical industry (40%), with smaller amounts being used in alloying. In electronics it used to be used mainly for electrical contacts but most now goes into chip resistors. In the chemical industry it is used in the anodes for chlorine production in electrochemical cells.
The metal is used as a hardener for palladium and platinum and added in small amounts improves the corrosion resistance of titaniumin. It is used in electrical contact alloys and filaments, in jewelry, in pen nibs, and in instrument pivots. It is also used in alloys with cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, tungsten, and other metals. Ruthenium compounds are used to color ceramics and glass.
Ruthenium is also a versatile catalyst, used for instance in the removal of H2S from oil refineries and from other industrial processes, for the production of ammonia from natural gas, and for the production of acetic acid from methanol.
Some ruthenium complexes absorb light throughout the visible spectrum and are being actively researched in various, potential, solar energy technologies.
Ruthenium in the environment
Ruthenium is one of the rarest metals on Earth.
Ruthenium is found as the free metal, sometimes associated with platinum, osmiumand iridium, in North and South America, and in South Africa. There are few minerals, such as laurite, ruarsite and ruthenarsenite. All are rare and none acts as a commercial source of the metal. Ruthenium is also associated with nickel and deposits (from which it is recovered commercially). World production is 12 tonnes per year and reserves are hestimated to be ariund 5.000 tonnes.
Health effects of ruthenium
Ruthenium compounds are encountered relatively rarely by most people. All ruthenium compounds should be regarded as highly toxic and as carcinogenic. Compounds of ruthenium stain the skin very strongly. It seems that ingested ruthenium is retained strongly in bones. Ruthenium oxide, RuO4, is highly toxic and volatile, and to be avoided.
Rhutenium 106 is one of the radionuclides involved in atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, which began in 1945, with a US test, and ended in 1980 with a Chinese test. It is among the long-lived radionuclides that have produced and will continue to produce increased cancers risk for decades and centuries to come.
Environmental effects of ruthenium
Very few data are available on ruthenium impact on plants and estimates of its uptake have deducted levels of 5 ppb or less, although algae appear to concentrate it. No negative environmental effects have been reported.
Technetium
Technetium did not arrive on earth in any appreciable amount until 1937 when a molybdenum atom was bombarded with deuterons by Carlo Perrier andEmilio Segrè. This was not for lack of trying because element 43’s existence was predicted by Mendeleev in the mid 19th century (1). Technetium’s distinction as being a man made element, however, is only one of its curious aspects. As one might suspect it is also exclusively radioactive, being unstable in every form. Still, technetium has managed to be useful in several applications including chemical synthesis, nanoscale nuclear batteries, and nuclear medicine (1,2,3,4).
Bioavailability and Uptake
Although Technetium has isotopes with mass numbers ranging from 85 to 118 only 10 are regularly seen and of those only 3 are abundant, those being 97Tc, 98Tc, 99Tc. Technetium-99 is the most abundant of all isotopes since it is a major fission product in nuclear reactors (5). Moreover, the use of Technetium-99m in nuclear medicine is increasing Technetium-99 abundance. Technetium-99m is a metastable isotope that is a gamma decay product of Molybdenum-99, another abundant fissile product. Indeed the amount of Tc in the environment is going up in all its forms but especially Tc-99. Besides industry professionals who may handle Tc or encounter it in their work, the most common form of uptake is through water and food and even at that there is very little data to support how much is taken up. Since Tc-99m is a nuclear medicine tool, this is how it is most often encountered in humans. It is often intravenously injected in a molecular form that is best suited for a certain diagnostic purpose. Technetium’s characteristics, however, allow it to pass through the body with ease and quickly (2,4).
Tc-99m/Tc99
Technetium-99m is the most prevalent diagnostic agent in nuclear medicine. It accounts for 85% of all diagnostic scans and is used around 20 million times per year (1). It is through its unique characteristics as a metastable radioactive isotope that gives it this dominance in the field. The first thing to note is that it is a powerful tool for looking inside a person because it emits gamma radiation that is easily detected (140.5 KeV) and provides a high resolution.
More importantly, the amount of radiation it gives off is low enough that it is not detrimental to the patient. A common injection for a diagnostic test is 250 MBq which would give a radiation dose of 0.05 Sv, far below the demarcation for radiation poisoning or harm.
Techentium-99m has a half-life of around 6 hours so there is plenty of time for any test and then the agent loses most of its radiation, furthermore the biological half-life of Tc in general is about 1 day so there is little time for it to do any damage at all. An added benefit to the entire process is that Tc-99m is produced from the decay of Mo99 which has a half-life of 66 hours, giving the agent a form in which it can travel and have some shelf-life.
There has even been ome debate as to the positive effects of low-level radiation, like the kind that Tc-99m gives, because it activates DNA repair mechanisms in the body that can fix existing mutations (2). A final reason for its selection as the premiere diagnostic agent is Tc-99m non-specificity in the human body giving it the ability to identity many different organs depending on the molecular structure that is attached to Tc. In one application, Tc-99m is even being used as a diagnostic for cancer by conjugating the metal with an antibody that is adept at identifying certain carcinomas (3). Some designs look for increased mitochondrial activity, others for certain macrophages or various immunological markers, all depending on the goal of the diagnostic. Ironically, capabilities are limited only by the knowledge of human disease.
Harmful Effects, Toxicology, Radiation
With the discussion of Tc-99m it seems like it is almost too good to be true and that it must have its drawbacks somewhere. Indeed there is one drawback and that is that it still produces Tc-99 eventually and its half-life is 210,000 years.
Indeed, we may getting ahead of ourselves with all the applications of nuclear physics, in that the problem of what to do with the waste is not yet solved or even really seriously being considered. The radiation from external Tc, however, is not harmful unless in close proximity or really internally present. The key issue is then that it may not be a problem now but its accumulation in the environment can do unexpectedly disastrous things. Internally Tc99 is the only real threat and Tc-99 is easily taken up into plants and animals but does not seem to do any damage as it is just as easily metabolized by biological chelating agents. In humans the same is true where metallothionens take care of the metal efficiently. According to the EPA, the cancer coefficient for Tc-99 and Tc-99m, through food and water ingestion, is 4.28 E-11 and 1.22 E-12 (Bq-1), this epidemiological figure “takes into account age and gender dependence of intake, metabolism, dosimetry, radiogenic risk and competing causes of death in estimating the risks to health from internal or external exposure to radionucleotides (7). Unfortunately this is only understandable to those well versed in epidemiology or radiation in general, so for reference, K40 a radioactive isotope of potassium that is regularly ingested and currently resides in the human body in high amounts (~140g ) has a cancer coefficient of 4.30 E-10, a whole order of magnitude higher and it is in us all the time for our entire lives (8). The matter of radiation is general is somewhat perplexing as relatively unstudied. Indeed this is the case for technetium where internal threat is cautioned but does not really seem to be a threat.
Conclusion
This investigation in general has brought about the knowledge that radiation poisoning is relatively unstudied and little is known about what is tolerable and what is detrimental. But currently Tc-99m is an overwhelmingly powerful medicinal tool that seems to help more people than it hurts. With more research and understanding it can only be solidified as a truly entirely beneficial material.