描述
Antimony metal and many of its compounds have been known since ancient times, and its toxicity has periodically been a matter of comment. Antimony (stibium) is an element and a metalloid, with atomic number 51 and atomic weight 121.75. It is in Group Va of the Periodic Table along with arsenic, bismuth, nitrogen and phosphorus. Contact with antimony occurs in a variety of ways, and as it is a common element in the surface of the earth it may accompany exposures to many different materials. Antimony has been identified in at least 114 different ores, and has even been found in meteorites. A recurrent problem in assessing its toxicity industrially is that arsenic and lead are often found with it, and other toxic materials, for example sulfur dioxide, may also be produced in the course of the process, and separation of exposures may be difficult or impossible. Contact with antimony has also occurred from is use as a medicinal substance, from natural exposures, and from domestic sources. Antimony has been a constituent not only of printing-metal but also of lead acid batteries, pigments, an opacifier under glazes and enamels (the white oxide), and in the present day it has been used widely as a flame retardant in fabrics and in brake linings of motor cars. Large scale industrial production, largely of antimony oxide, began in the early 19th century.; Physiologically, this metal/element exists as an ion in the body. The toxicology of antimony and its compounds is known from three sources: its medicinal use over centuries, studies of process workers in more recent times, and more recent still, studies of its presence in modern city environments and in domestic environments. Gross exposure to antimony compounds over long periods, usually the sulfide (SbS3) or the oxide (Sb2O3) has occurred in antimony miners and in antimony process workers. There have been relatively few of these, and few studies of possible symptoms have been made. Antimony sulfide imported from, at different times, China, South Africa, and South America was processed in the North-East of England from about 1870 to 2003. The process workers in North-East England have been studied at different times, notably by Sir Thomas Oliver in 1933, and by the Newcastle upon Tyne University Department of Occupational Medicine on later occasions. Studies which have been made of the working environment, and in particular of the risk of lung cancer in process workers, have underlined the high levels of exposure to antimony compounds and to other toxic materials. However, the working conditions in antimony processing have improved markedly over the last 30 years, and the workforce had been much reduced in numbers following automation of the process. Prior to the cessation of the industry in the UK it had become a white coat operation with relatively few people exposed to high concentrations of antimony. Antimony, which is normally present in domestic environments, has also been studied as a possible cause of cot death syndrome (SIDS) but extensive investigations have not confirmed this. The full importance of environmental antimony has still to be determined, and evidence of specific effects has not yet been presented. (PMID: 16307078).