Is environmental antimony a potential health problem

• Published in: Chinese journal of geochemistry 2006, Vol.25 (B08), p.68-69
• Main Author: John G. Farmer Joanna M. Cloy Margaret C. Graham Angus B. MacKenzie Gordon T. Cook
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 人体健康; 有毒元素; 环境污染
• ISSN: 1000-9426; 1993-0364

Antimony has long been recognized as a non-essential, potentially toxic element. It has recently been suggested, on the basis of measured elemental profiles in peat bogs, that natural levels of Sb in the environment have been overestimated by a factor of 10 and that anthropogenic Sb deposition from the atmosphere has closely followed that of Pb. The implication is that the health effects of environmental Sb may have been seriously underestimated. To examine these propositions, we have compared new data for Sb and Pb in dated cores from four Scottish ombrotrophic peat bogs, Carsegowan Moss, Flanders Moss, Red Moss of Balerno and Turclossie Moss, in southwest, west-central, east-central and northeast Scotland, respectively. Dried peat sections, 1 to 2 cm thick, were subjected to microwave-assisted digestion in nitric/hydrofluoric acid and subsequently analyzed for a range of elements （including Sb, Pb, and the conservative elements Sc, Ti） and Pb isotopic composition by ICP-OES and ICP-MS as appropriate. Three certified reference materials, including NIMT/UOE/FM/001 Peat, were used for quality control purposes. Radiometric dating of upper and lower sections of the cores was carried out using gamma spectrometry for ^21-Pb and accelerator mass spectrometry for ^14C, respectively Some 2000 years ago, in Roman times, both Sb and Pb were clearly elevated in Scottish peat but typically at concentrations below 0.1 mg/kg and 5 mg/kg, respectively, with an average anthropogenic Sb/Pb ratio of-0.01.