Zinc again!..
just a comment again about zinc.and only FYI as interesting facts:
copper, silver and gold form the group 12 on the periodic table. Zinc is in the next column to the right, zinc, cadmium, mercury form group 13…
group 13 metals have progressively lower melting points,as the get heavier, with mercury liquid at room temperature. All of the metals are volatile when melted… mercury volatizes in it’s molten state at room temperature, cadium at 617 degrees F… Zinc, 787…these metals are toxic with zinc being the least toxic unless fumes are inhaled at high concentrations…
both zinc and copper are essential trace elements for life… do not take zinc supplements chronically for preventing colds… the gut uses the same transport mechanism to move zinc and copper into the blood stream… chronic zinc supplementation will compete with copper transport and lead to copper deficiency which causes nerve and spinal cord damage. chronic copper exposure is not a signficant problem as the body regulates the amount of copper closely…but does happen with occupational exposure to copper sulfate spraying as a fungicide for vineyards, chronic exposure to high levels of copper in contaminated water supplies, and habitual use of copper pots cooking acid foods… copper excess causes zinc deficiency and kidney and liver damage. Rare genetic diseases where copper metabolism is dysregulated also leads to copper toxicity…
Silver toxicity is rare but occurs as an occupational hazard… jewelers, silversmiths, miners, industrial refiners are listed as professions at risk… the reference is from the National Institutes of Health “Stat Pearls”.
The amount of silver exposure for home bench work is minimal…not a concern unless in an industrial commercial workshop…EU standards for silver exposure is 0.1 milligrams per square meter of body surface per 8 hours for metallic silver, 0.01 mg per square meter for soluble silver salts (eg. silver nitrate, silver chloride)… none of us are at risk since none of us have whole body exposure to soluble silver salts…OSHA’s limits are the same for metallic and soluble salts at 0.01mg/meter2…
I have seen only 3 patients over a course of 40 years who have had neurological complications from copper toxicity, zinc toxicity, lead toxicity on a chronic basis… one had zinc toxicity manifest by copper deficiency by taking chronic zinc supplements for cold prevention over a course of 10 years, another was exposed to copper and arsenic from using Paris Green, copper arsenate fungicide, banned by the EPA decades ago, one who had lead chonic lead poisoning as a worker in a local bullet making facility that had zero safety precautions… OSHA busted the company… inspectors found lead shavings all over table tops, the floor and in coffee cups!!!..
Gold is non toxic…unless ingested or injected as nano particles… before the development of much more effective drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis, colloidal gold was injected as a treatment…the total amount of colloid gold that was injected was set below toxicity levels…
This is not meant to scare anyone… I really don’t think that anyone is at risk working precious metals at home… more of an industrial safety issue. Don’t know how this came up but we were talking about zinc…
