Talk:Heavy metals

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Contents

[edit] Definition

With de definition "heavy metals are a group of elements between copper and mercury" you are excluding, for example, the heavy metal lead.

[edit] Topic

This article doesn't really talk about anything associated with heavy metals The hub 12:08, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Gold and Tungsten

Gold is a heavy metal poison also. It is just hard to find soluable compounds of it, but they do exist and will bioaccumulate.

I do not think Tungsten is 'horribly toxic', I think it has a mediocre toxicity, and does not bioaccumulate.

[edit] Beryllium included as a heavy metal

I don't think beryllium, the second lightest metal and the fourth lightest element, should be included in the definition of heavy metals. However, mentioning that light, but toxic, metals are sometimes incorrectly called heavy metals would be fine. -- Kjkolb 02:03, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Beryllium or Potassium as Second-Lightest Metal

I'm sorry, I am confused, a search of wikipedia will aid you to discover that both beryllium and potassium are (as labeled according to other wikipedia users) the "second lightest metals" since I doubt this is true, could somone who knows please verify which one of these two entries is true, following is the link to the Potassium article. Thanks for your help.

The article says that potassium is the second lightest by density (at least it does now). Beryllium has a lower atomic mass, so it is lighter on a per atom basis. Density is mass divided by volume, though (they're not talking density on a single atom basis, which beryllium would win). If a light element packs its atoms closely together, then a solid piece or a cupful of the element may be heavier than a heavier element with atoms spaced farther apart. -- Kjkolb 10:36, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Heavy metal poisoning

A request for the above separate page was put on the Expansion page.

A minor point for the article on creation - the use of heavy metals in "detective fiction poisoning" - Arsenic and Old Lace, and thallium in Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse. Jackiespeel 17:20, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Page title

Shouldn't the title of this page be Heavy metal rather than Heavy metals, by Wikipedia:Naming conventions? ―Wmahan. 06:32, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Heavy metal is also a musical genre,so maybe it's better to keep it the way it is right now.

[edit] Heavy metals in food sources

I got to this page from a link from Omega-3_fatty_acid, in particular, am interested in which foods have a high risk of heavy metals (such as certain fish... which ones?), and in what magnitudes?

[edit] I'm searching for information on how to artificially increase a metal's physical weight to indefinitive amounts.

Friday, 10-6-06; Portland, OR; 12:04pm West Coast Pacific Time

Is there an expert on this "Talk:Heavy metals (comment)" page who knows how to artificially increase the physical weight of a small piece of metal (say the size of a 1/2 inch diameter galvanized steel washer)? Is this only theory, or has this concept actually been proven? bear in mind, that I wish to affect only the weight of this size and not the physical dimensions of this size; in other words: Is it possible to artificially increase the weight of a 1/2 inch diameter steel washer to an indefinite weight such as, for example, 50 lbs., 100 lbs., 150 lbs., 200 lbs., 500 lbs., or even to a weight of 1,000 lbs.? Why would I want to try this? For a private science project I'm cogitating.

--MyPresentCPUisTooSlow 19:33, 6 October 2006 (UTC)MyPresentCPUisTooSlow

You would either have to compress it and add more metal to it, or turn it into a different substance entirely. There is no way to keep the same substance and change the weight, exempting splitting the atom. And that just decreases the weight. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:67.173.46.246 (talk • contribs).
There is, of course, one very obvious way to keep the same metal and increase its weight: subject it to a stronger gravitational field. The weight of a particular mass of metal varies depending upon local gravity. However, I'm thinking this isn't the answer that you're after. Cheers, --Plumbago 09:10, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
You could bombard the metal with neutrons, and sometimes in some cases some metals would absorb them into their nuclei, yielding heavier isotopes of the same metal element (say, steel, as in your given example). It wouldn't be more than a marginal weight (mass) increase. Not up to the orders of magnitude of increase that you're after. Under most conditions, you would "split atoms" with your neutrom beam, like 67.173.46.246 was saying, though he was wrong to say that you'd be left with the same metal (no more steel). Atom splitting yields different elements. Good luck with your private science project. 198.49.180.40 18:07, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
I think the density increases that you're after are not attainable (not in this century and on this planet anyway ;-). If you really want the same steel item to significantly increase it's density, it can hardly be done in a reasonable way. Neutron bombardment, as outlined above, is of course not for do-it-yourself science projects. And even if you attempted that (which would be dangerous and possibly illegal), all you could reasonably hope for is to convert all iron atoms into iron-58 isotopes (the heaviest stable iron isotope) which whould yield a density increase of only 4% over the original item. Much easier would be to use directly an item made from a more dense steel alloy, e.g. a tungsten steel alloy, but that of course is then a different item. So I think it is safe to say, your desired goal is not even within the realms of fringe science, but total science fiction.--83.76.185.16 (talk) 12:27, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Added Wikify Tag

I'm not sure if that was the appropriate tag, but this article does not read like an encyclopedic entry should. I don't currently have the knowledge to update the article properly, so hopefully this tag will draw someone in. Maghnus 05:39, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Free radicals?

The paragraph about free radicals and their link with heavy metals seems to be unmitigated pseudoscience. In particular, it's contradicted by a lot of the article on Chelation therapy. Also, eating foods rich in fibre is hardly going to "wisk metals out of the digestive tract", and stating that phytonutrients have "an extra electron which is used to deactivate free radicals" would offend any semi-knowledgeable biology student, not least because the term "phytonutrients" encompasses a huge variety of different compounds. I'm deleting the paragraph entirely as there's very little there to salvage. Kupos 20:06, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

I concur. That one about the extra electron was a doozie. A lot of information and theory out there is propagated without wide replication and peer review. Does the experiment mean what it seems to mean? I hav no trouble with promoting vejtable consumption, but phytonutrient is too jeneral a term in the context and I am sick and tired of hearing about vejtables that react to the atmosphere.
I'm a free radical. BrewJay (talk) 10:29, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Depleted Uranium

Is depleted Uranium classified as a heavy metal? Would it be an acceptable example (it is quite dense, it is a metal, so I would be hard pressed to deny that it is a heavy metal).

[edit] List of Common Problematic Heavy Metals

It would be prudent to list some of the common problems associated with certain heavy metals – including, for example : 1)Mercury 2)Lead 3)The list could go on – but you get the picture.

Some metals are already mentioned - but I was hoping more for a systematic list (say, a list of all metals in the periodic table, together with comments concerning the MANY different alloys of them which are present in industrial society and how alloying can affect toxicity, etc...).

Common symptoms which both “major” exposure are associated with, as well as “minor” exposure (ie: low level background exposure for prolonged time periods).

Common methods of detection (some simple, scientific, “back garden” methods of detecting and calibrating concentrations of heavy metals in water and food supplies sounds like a good idea here).

It is worth adding the comment that even minor amounts of heavy metal, when they find themselves in body tissue, have the effect of negatively affecting nervous cells, etc....- but this is probably too obvious to mention.

MrASMafmo (talk) 21:02, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] One Decision

Heavy metal, in most cases, is pejorative, so I've long understood it to exclude essential minerals. Then again, I see that balance is important, so I can understand some authors including Zinc. Beryllium is a hard case, since it's lighter than many inevitable elements of biology (carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus). Lead is clearly in the category. So are Tin and antimony. I mean to avoid saying "Heavy Metal" without excluding transition metals. I've got this tap water dechlorinator that says on the bottle that it removes Heavy Metals. I'm not going to believe that until I see a precipitate. BrewJay (talk) 10:02, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] TEGA-Öfen erhitzen die Proben bis auf 1000 Grad Celsius (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Texas A&M)

194.66.226.95 (talk) 15:17, 7 June 2008 (UTC)