The Influence Of Antimony On People And The Environment

The ancient Egyptians used it as makeup and today we use it in many ways, “it” is the element antimony. Discovered by the ancients, this element serves many purposes (it is no longer used as eyeliner, like it was for them), but also has many negative effects on people and the environment. Antimony is a metalloid found in group 15. It is a silvery lustrous rock, and its standard state is a solid. It is a poor conductor of heat and electricity.
Antimony has many universal applications that are meant to be beneficial to people. One of its usages is in its form of antimony trioxide, is made into a flame retardant frequently used in toys and seat covers. Of its many functions, antimony is commonly used as an alloy to make other metals stronger. It is primarily alloyed with lead to make it harder. Its alloys are frequently used in batteries and cables. It is also used in some food packaging, usually used as a catalyst in manufacturing polyethylen terephthalate.
Antimony is found in the environment, but found in very low levels. The majority of antimony comes from the resources humans use. The antimony used in human products increase the amount of antimony in the natural environment. There is some antimony in soil, but high concentrations of it are found in wastes sites. The most common ways antimony can enter the body is simply consuming it or breathing its dusts in. Also contact with soil with high amounts of antimony can increase unwanted exposure. Since antimony is used to produce some types of food packaging, such as plastic water bottles, consumption is much more likely than breathing it in and touching toxic