| QUESTIONS | ANSWERS |
|---|---|
| What is this chemical? | Antimony is a semimetallic chemical element which can exist in two forms: the metallic form is bright, silvery, hard and brittle; the non metallic form is a grey powder.It is sometimes found free in nature, but is usually obtained from the ores stibnite and valentinite. |
| What is its purpose? | Antimony is an important metal in the world economy. Very pure antimony is used to make certain types of semiconductor devices. |
| Where is it found? |
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HEALTH CONCERNS Is this chemical a carcinogen? It is not known whether antimony can cause cancer or reproductive failure. How can it affect me? Antimony is used as a medine for parasital infections, but people who have had too much of the medicine or were sensitive to it have experienced health effects in the past. These health effects have made us more aware of the dangers of exposure to antimony.Antimony and many of its compounds are toxic. Clinically, antimony poisoning is very similar to arsenic poisoning. In small doses, antimony causes headache, dizziness, and depression. Larger doses cause violent and frequent vomiting, and will lead to death in a few days. Antimony leaches from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles into liquids. PET is commonly recycled, and has the number “1″ as its recycling symbol.
While levels observed for bottled water are below drinking water guidelines, fruit juice concentrates (for which no guidelines are established) produced in the UK were found to contain up to 44.7 µg/L of Antimony, well above the EU limits for tap water of 5 µg/L. The guidelines are:
- World Health Organization: 20 µg/L
- Japan: 15 µg/L
- United States Environmental Protection Agency, Health Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Environment: 6 µg/L
- German Federal Ministry of Environment: 5 µg/L
People that work with antimony can suffer the effects of exposure by breathing in antimony dusts. Human exposure to antimony can take place by breathing air, drinking water and eating foods that contain it, but also by skin contact with soil, water and other substances that contain it.
Exposure to relatively high concentrations of antimony (9 mg/m3 of air) for a longer period of time can cause irritation of the eyes, skin and lungs. As the exposure continues more serious health effects may occur, such as lung diseases, heart problems, diarrhea, severe vomiting and stomach ulcers.
Are there controversial issues? No.
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