Pure element toxicity

How toxic are pure elements when ingested? Assume that each is ingested as a smooth pill to avoid the physical danger from sharp edges. Or multiple pills so the volume doesn’t exceed what can easily pass through the digestive system.

There ought to a way to compare chemical toxicity. Death would be considered more dangerous than burning, which in turn is more dangerous than diarrhoea, which in turn is more dangerous than chemical absorption due to reactivity, which in turn would be more dangerous than nanoparticle deposition, which in turn is more dangerous than complete inertness.

It should be possible to sort the pure elements in order. From no source other than general knowledge, I’d guess the pure element toxicity would be in the following order, approximately, from safest to least safe. How accurate would I be?

Platinum – reacts only in extreme acid and alkaline liquids
Gold – injected gold nanoparticles can accumulate in the brain
Silver – reacts with sulphur
Iron – safe as a nanoparticle
Tin – safe as a nanoparticle
Zinc – safe as a nanoparticle
Silicon – the physical danger is more severe than the chemical danger

Carbon (as graphite) – reactive
Magnesium – reactive
Aluminium – implicated in dementia

Lead – eventually accumulates
Copper – used in pesticides
Mercury – causes diarrhoea
Iodine – antibiotic, skin irritation
Chromium – used in pesticides
Arsenic – poison, used in pesticides, causes diarrhoea

Thorium – radioactive
Uranium – radioactive

Sulphur – burns the skin
Sodium – burns
Potassium – burns
Thallium – poison
Phosphorus (multiple forms) – really burns
Francium – explosive
Plutonium – radioactive and chemically dangerous

I’ve deliberately placed copper as more dangerous than lead, I suspect that it is because copper is widely used in pesticides and lead isn’t.

What have I missed?

Ian said:

:)

Antimony (Sb) is a silver-white brittle solid or a dark-gray, lustrous powder. It can be harmful to the eyes and skin. Antimony can also cause problems with the lungs, heart, and stomach. Workers may be harmed from exposure to antimony and its compounds.

Antimony is my go to when I’m having “problems”

If polonium-210 enters the body, through inhalation, swallowing, broken skin, the results can be fatal. By mass, polonium-210 is one of the deadliest toxins, around 250 billion times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide.

You use polonium if you just to get the job done right

wookiemeister said:

If polonium-210 enters the body, through inhalation, swallowing, broken skin, the results can be fatal. By mass, polonium-210 is one of the deadliest toxins, around 250 billion times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide.

You use polonium if you just want to get the job done right

210Po is extremely toxic; it and other polonium isotopes are some of the most radiotoxic substances to humans. With one microgram being more than enough to kill the average adult, 210Po is 250,000 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide by weight; it is also thought that one gram of 210Po is enough to kill 50 million people and sicken another 50 million. This is a consequence of its ionizing alpha radiation, as alpha particles are especially damaging to organic tissues inside the body. However, 210Po does not pose a radiation hazard when contained outside the body. The alpha particles it produces cannot penetrate the outer layer of dead skin cells.

wookiemeister said:

wookiemeister said:

If polonium-210 enters the body, through inhalation, swallowing, broken skin, the results can be fatal. By mass, polonium-210 is one of the deadliest toxins, around 250 billion times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide.

You use polonium if you just want to get the job done right

210Po is extremely toxic; it and other polonium isotopes are some of the most radiotoxic substances to humans. With one microgram being more than enough to kill the average adult, 210Po is 250,000 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide by weight; it is also thought that one gram of 210Po is enough to kill 50 million people and sicken another 50 million. This is a consequence of its ionizing alpha radiation, as alpha particles are especially damaging to organic tissues inside the body. However, 210Po does not pose a radiation hazard when contained outside the body. The alpha particles it produces cannot penetrate the outer layer of dead skin cells.

In reality though how many people could it kill, what would be the smallest dose a person could actually consume/inhale

https://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/27/health/polonium-arafat-explainer/index.html

Po 210 poisoning

There was the former KGB guy that got poisoned. Former KGB spies have a habit of dying.

wookiemeister said:

https://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/27/health/polonium-arafat-explainer/index.html

Po 210 poisoning

There was the former KGB guy that got poisoned. Former KGB spies have a habit of dying.

And the UK seems to be the killing field.

Peak Warming Man said:

wookiemeister said:

https://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/27/health/polonium-arafat-explainer/index.html

Po 210 poisoning

There was the former KGB guy that got poisoned. Former KGB spies have a habit of dying.

And the UK seems to be the killing field.

Its an occupational hazard of going AWOL from the KGB

Brits kill off people too, the Marconi scientists, Mark purdey, CND campaigners, “activists”. The brits favour brain cancer, car accidents, sexual misadventure – one of them was found in a suitcase. I wouldn’t put heart attacks past them

wookiemeister said:

Antimony (Sb) is a silver-white brittle solid or a dark-gray, lustrous powder. It can be harmful to the eyes and skin. Antimony can also cause problems with the lungs, heart, and stomach. Workers may be harmed from exposure to antimony and its compounds.

Antimony is my go to when I’m having “problems”

But don’t eat the explosive kind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosive_antimony

KJW said:

wookiemeister said:

Antimony (Sb) is a silver-white brittle solid or a dark-gray, lustrous powder. It can be harmful to the eyes and skin. Antimony can also cause problems with the lungs, heart, and stomach. Workers may be harmed from exposure to antimony and its compounds.

Antimony is my go to when I’m having “problems”

But don’t eat the explosive kind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosive_antimony

I handled antimony nearly every day as a youth.

what happens if you put money and antimoney in the same wallet?

It’s worth pointing out that “pure elements” is ill-defined because various elements come in different allotropes, which generally have different physical and chemical properties. For example, dioxygen is mildly toxic, ozone much more so. Then there is the question of where singlet oxygen fits into all this.

party_pants said:

what happens if you put money and antimoney in the same wallet?

It’s funny you should refer to “antimoney” because I often confuse “antimony” with “antinomy”. Both are actual words, but which one refers to the element? I figured out that because the element is a material substance, it is worth money, and hence “antimony” (“antimoney”). By contrast, “antinomy” is a contradiction, and therefore a word thingy, and so is name or nom or nomy, and thus “antinomy”. And that’s how I remember it.

Bogsnorkler said:

KJW said:

wookiemeister said:

Antimony (Sb) is a silver-white brittle solid or a dark-gray, lustrous powder. It can be harmful to the eyes and skin. Antimony can also cause problems with the lungs, heart, and stomach. Workers may be harmed from exposure to antimony and its compounds.

Antimony is my go to when I’m having “problems”

But don’t eat the explosive kind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosive_antimony

I handled antimony nearly every day as a youth.

I’ve never handled antimony, nor any of its compounds. I do have a fondness for antimony pentafluoride, SbF₅. It’s a very strong Lewis acid and a potent fluoride acceptor. If the oxidising power of fluorine gas just isn’t enough for you, add some antimony pentafluoride.

KJW said:

party_pants said:

what happens if you put money and antimoney in the same wallet?

It’s funny you should refer to “antimoney” because I often confuse “antimony” with “antinomy”. Both are actual words, but which one refers to the element? I figured out that because the element is a material substance, it is worth money, and hence “antimony” (“antimoney”). By contrast, “antinomy” is a contradiction, and therefore a word thingy, and so is name or nom or nomy, and thus “antinomy”. And that’s how I remember it.

Must confess I have never used antinomy in a sentence before.

KJW said:

Bogsnorkler said:

KJW said:

But don’t eat the explosive kind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosive_antimony

I handled antimony nearly every day as a youth.

I’ve never handled antimony, nor any of its compounds. I do have a fondness for antimony pentafluoride, SbF₅. It’s a very strong Lewis acid and a potent fluoride acceptor. If the oxidising power of fluorine gas just isn’t enough for you, add some antimony pentafluoride.

I did an apprenticeship as a letterpress printer.

Bogsnorkler said:

I did an apprenticeship as a letterpress printer.

According to Wikipedia, China’s Guizhou province issued coins made of antimony in 1931, but the durability was poor, so minting was discontinued.

I worked at an antimony-gold mine for a while. Somewhere around I have a large stibnite (antimony sulphide, Sb2S3) rosette specimen, that at its very centre has a number match-head size lumps of gold. One very unusual mineral we had there was aurostibite; AuSb2, gold antimonide.

Michael V said:

I worked at an antimony-gold mine for a while. Somewhere around I have a large stibnite (antimony sulphide, Sb2S3) rosette specimen, that at its very centre has a number match-head size lumps of gold. One very unusual mineral we had there was aurostibite; AuSb2, gold antimonide.

You’ve lived an interesting life.

Not exactly the same, because it’s injected, in chickens, and salts rather than pure metals (eg. NaCl is less toxic than metallic sodium). From Ridgeway et al, 1952.

Different salts of the same element show markedly different toxicities, noted in arsenic and chromium.
Platinum salt turns out to be surprisingly toxic, which I didn’t expect. Silver, too, but that was more expected.