Antimony Essay Example for Free

Antimony studyThe ancient Egyptians wontd it as makeup and today we use it in umpteen 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 alike 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 director of heat and electricity. Antimony has many universal applications that are meant to be beneficial to people.One of its usages is in its construct 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 corpus to make it harder. Its alloys are frequently used in batteries and cables. It is also used in some regimen packaging, usually used as a catalyst in manufacturing polyethylen ter ephthalate. One butt come in contact with antimony in many ways. 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 maturation the amount of antimony in the natural environment. There is some antimony in soil, but last concentrations of it are found in wastes sites. The most common ways antimony plenty enter the clay is simply consuming it or breathing its dusts in. Also contact with soil with high amounts of antimony can increase unwanted photo. Since antimony is used to produce some types of food packaging, such as waxy water bottles, consumption is such(prenominal) more likely than breathing it in and touching toxic soil. The use of antimony in the medical field is very scarce considering it has negative side effects.To name a few, some utilizations are, compounds of antimony are used as antiprotozoan drugs and veterinary purposes, tending to be used as a flak e off conditioner, which is quite ironic considering what antimony is known for doing to scratch. Antimony is known for having negative health effects. Antimony as well as its compounds are known to be toxic. If one has too much exposure to antimony it can cause major health impairments. A modest exposure to antimony by breathing it in can have an effect on skin and eyes. A skin condition that one can get by contacting antimony is antimony spots.It is a rash of pustules some sweat glands. Its effect on eye health consists of ocular conjunctivitis. Extreme amounts of antimony exposure can lead to more severe effects on the heart and lungs as well as skin and eyes. And although not proven, antimony and some of its products have been linked to cancer. The only way to prevent any of the severeness conditions some antimony product provide, one needs to make sure that one gets as diminutive exposure as possible. It is impossible to steer completely clear of antimony, and it is not ne cessary, a little exposure will not kill a person, but too much of something is never good.