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EducationAN OVERVIEW OF MINERALS TOXICITY

10th Nov 2014 00:06 UTCcascaillou

Article available (and downloadable) at

https://www.academia.edu/40433628/An_Overview_of_Minerals_Toxicity

10th Nov 2014 18:48 UTCRock Currier Expert

cascaillou

That's an impressive article. Do you have any statistics of how many collectors, curators or mineral dealers have been killed or harmed by the above listed minerals? Relative to collecting accidents, like falling rocks or broken bones, smashed thumbs, vehicle accidents getting to and from localities, shows etc?

11th Nov 2014 00:54 UTCcascaillou

If you read me carefully, I've been drawing pretty much the same conclusion than what you're suggesting, which is to say that minerals toxicity is essentially a concern to the mining and stone industry (relating to the context of exposure).

Which doesn't make minerals pharmacology any less interesting to learn about, if showing any interest in phamacology, of course.

11th Nov 2014 18:09 UTCRock Currier Expert

Yes, but many people reading a lot of the stuff that you have written are going to be fearful to even pick up a specimen. If they don't know what it is on site they will fear that it may be one of the ones you talk about. I doubt that they will sift through all of it and come to the conclusion that they are perfectly safe collecting minerals. Perhaps if you were to emphasize that fact at the top of your article it might ameliorate the overall effect. But even so it will scare away many people.

11th Nov 2014 20:03 UTCcascaillou

I actually tried to emphasize on that point all through the article (including in the introduction, before even mentioning any mineral, I was already outlining that the toxicity of minerals is essentially an industrial concern). But my article being kind of dense, you're probably right to outline it again.

13th Nov 2014 04:18 UTCRock Currier Expert

The problem is to make sure that your remarks about mineral toxicity are put in perspective. If you could produce some statistics of damage to humans from minerals compared to damage from common every day human activities I think it would reduce the fear your summary will produce.

13th Nov 2014 23:27 UTCcascaillou

well, at least we've made it clear by now that there's no monster under the bed.

14th Nov 2014 21:01 UTCJohn Sobolewski Expert

It is obvious that the writer is interested in the potential toxicity of minerals and has spent a lot of time in researching the topic for which he should be congratulated. However, I believe the article tends to present a one sided and exaggerated view of the danger and is likely to be misinterpreted by many people unless some context is included upfront. Furthermore, I do not believe it honestly answers the question beginning collectors may have about mineral toxicity and is likely lead them to conclude that they should not touch or even be near minerals. It should be emphasized upfront that minerals are quite safe if handled with common sense. They should not be ingested, powdered, or snorted, and people should wash their hands after handling them.

I do not know how many collectors have accidentally died or have gotten sick because of mineral toxicity, but that number must be miniscule compared to deaths and injuries caused by common things we do like driving a car, flying, swimming, or just walking on the street (especially if you are in a place like Chicago). So, if you want to be safe, by all means spend more time on your mineral collecting hobby and less time doing those other and so much more hazardous things. With only a little bit of common sense, mineral collecting is quite safe, even though some minerals are toxic.

NEWS FLASH! If you want to be safer, do not use contact lenses either. As I am writing this, the latest news report is that contact lenses are hazardous and cause eye infections resulting in over 1,000,000 hospital or doctor visits each year in the USA alone.

The bottom line is enjoy your mineral collecting but use common sense ( which seems to be in shorter and shorter supply these days) because some minerals can be dangerous if mishandled, but that danger is miniscule compared other routine things we do and take for granted each day. That context is missing and should be included. John S.

17th Nov 2014 00:02 UTCcascaillou

questions beginning collectors may have about mineral toxicity

Beginners are often asking about the toxicity of, say, some arsenic or mercury containing mineral they own. My approach of the question was to first outline that bioavailability is a key factor rather than the mere presence of the element, and then illustrated that point by putting in perspective different minerals for each element (on the basis of numerical values). Indeed there's no way around argumentation when writing a science article (rather than jumping straight to a conclusion), although I understand that too much data could be misleading to a beginner. This article isn't directly addressed to beginners anyway, I've rather been trying to set some scientific background to build our answers on, instead of providing beginners with unsupported opinions.

29th Mar 2017 19:25 UTCŁukasz Kruszewski Expert

Interesting, will have to read this more carefully. Regarding radioactive minerals: ca. 90% or so of their radiation comes from alpha particles, which are completely unharmful if not ingested; a paper sheet would stop them; keeping the specimens in a plastic box is a good idea, especially that daughter radon radionuclides are said to be capable of electrostatically catching to plastics. Of some concern is just a dust forming on the mica-like uranium minerals, which are prone to separation to smaller particles due to radiation (and, I suppose, their habit).

1mSv per year - this is fine, but as far as I remember it was set to 3 for geologists (-;

31st Mar 2017 01:09 UTCcascaillou

Here are a few quality specimens to illustrate the topic:

http://www.mineralman.com/ebay2/montroydite1009140009.jpg

Mineral: Montroydite (on calcite)

Locality: Terlingua, Terlingua District, Brewster Co., Texas, USA

Specimen size: 5.76cm x 4.65cm x 2.72cm (that is a large aggregate for the species)

Source: mineralman.com

http://www.mineralman.com/mineralmanAC/arsenolite1230100023.jpg

Mineral: Arsenolite

Locality: Rauris valley, Hohe Tauern Mts, Salzburg, Austria

Specimen size: 6.74cm x 4.57cm x 3.92cm (with crystals to 5mm and compound crystals to nearly 1cm. These are large crystals for the species)

Source: mineralman.com

http://www.andyseibel.com/images/minerals/specimen_2770_photo_1.jpg

Mineral: Arsenolite

Locality: White Caps Mine, Manhattan District, Nye Co., Nevada, USA (Let's note that arsenolite from this mine was formed post-mining, subsequently to a mine fire)

Specimen size: 3.5 x 2.8 cm (with crystals to 4mm)

Source: andyseibel.com

1st Apr 2017 14:24 UTCAlysson Rowan Expert

cascaillou ::

That is an extremely well put together article - is there any chance of you putting that together as a formal paper that can be downloaded and cited easily? It would make life a lot easier to be able to refer people to a downloadable PDF. ;)

1st Apr 2017 14:27 UTCAlysson Rowan Expert

Łukasz Kruszewski ::

You might like to take a look at ...

Here be Dragons : The Care and Feeding of Radioactive Mineral Species

The new edition (Feb 2017) is right here:- Alysson Rowan's Published Papers and Stuff

1st Apr 2017 16:31 UTCcascaillou

Thank you Alysson, that has been a lot of work.

For now, I'd prefer to keep my article as is, as it makes it easier to keep it updated regularly.

1st Apr 2017 17:46 UTCŁukasz Kruszewski Expert

Thank you, Alysson! Cascaillou, Alysson: it's good that someone deals with this!

1st Apr 2017 19:55 UTCAlysson Rowan Expert

That's fair enough, Cascaillou - it means that I'll have to cite the messageboard, then ;)

2nd Apr 2017 16:10 UTCHarold Moritz 🌟 Expert

As mentioned way up above, when I was an environmental cleanup consultant, I learned that nearly all adverse exposure to toxins is occupational. That is, the day in, day out chronic exposure scenario. Thus collectors have really nothing to fear from their collection, or by even going out and personally collecting them all, save for the actually much more likely physically bad things that can happen - slips, trips and falls being the most common.

2nd Apr 2017 17:02 UTCAlysson Rowan Expert

Harold,

The biggest risk from a collection in the home is to young children - who often put stuff in their mouths.

Part of the need is to educate new collectors to the need for hygeine and restricted access to minerals for small children (or people who suffer from pica) - a throat full of acicular crystals, a stomach full of orpiment or a lung full of fibrous chrysotile is hardly a good idea, after all.

2nd Apr 2017 17:17 UTCHarold Moritz 🌟 Expert

Yes, Alysson, I hadnt considered that (I should amend my post to say that nearly all adverse exposure to adults is occupational...). The collection should then just be part of the typical "baby-proofing" that should go on in any home for all sortsa reasons.

2nd Apr 2017 17:25 UTCAlysson Rowan Expert

Except in the case of annoying little sisters ;-)

11th Nov 2020 07:10 UTCJolyon Ralph Founder

Two things.

One, academia.edu doesn't seem to work with my login however I try. Oh well.

Second, an academic article really needs a full author name. Its not something we can really cite as it is.

4th Dec 2020 16:22 UTCcascaillou

Article is also available (and downloadable) at

https://www.foro-minerales.com/forum/gen_imag/An_Overview_of_Minerals_Toxicity/An_Overview_of_Minerals_Toxicity.pdf

The final version of the article (updated December 19, 2020) is now available.

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