What is the Effect of Tungsten on Human Health?

Recently, the academic team of a team of scientists at a university in Chicago, USA, published in "Nature." They believe that tungsten may pose a health risk to the human body, especially tungsten dust and drinking water containing tungsten.

In the past, it was generally believed that tungsten had little or no health risk to the general population. Tungsten itself is not toxic, but studies have found that tungsten dissolved in water sources may be ingested by humans and accumulated in human bones, producing a chemical similar to phosphotungstate, which is difficult to remove and may increase intake. The toxicity of other metallic substances. Especially in some tungsten mining areas, such high-temperature sources of tungsten are not uncommon. Long-term consumption of surface water or groundwater with a high level of tungsten may pose a health risk.

Tungsten is a special refractory metal with the highest melting point, high density and hardness. It is an important component in various industrial, military and medical applications. Tungsten can be used in cutting tools, ammunition, medical devices and even some drugs. It has become a part of our daily life. We can easily find tungsten tools or products in all aspects of our lives.

Of course, scientists do not think that sintered tungsten products or other finished products are dangerous to human body, but tungsten powder, tungsten dust or water-soluble tungsten compounds. So they suggest that smelting enterprises should strengthen the restriction of tungsten dust exposed in the air during the production process in order to protect the workers who exploit and treat metals. In reading many domestic academic papers, the author also found that many domestic scholars have expressed similar views. Just this time, American scientists will break the casserole to the bottom and make more concrete arguments through more in-depth research.

At the beginning of this century, American scientists investigated the possible link between a series of childhood leukemia cases in Fallon, Nevada, and the high level of tungsten in groundwater provided by the town. The case prompted the CDC to nominate tungsten for toxicological and carcinogenic studies.

It has been found that tungsten accumulates in bones and is neither stable nor inert once absorbed. Considering its relationship with childhood lymphoblastic leukemia, the solubility and availability of tungsten are relatively high. Scientists described the chemical form of mice exposed to tungsten through drinking water. The accumulation of tungsten in bone tissue was reported by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Some of the sites were 2 to 10 times stronger than the background level.

It is worth noting that tungsten does not accumulate evenly on bones, on the contrary, it concentrates on uneven accumulation in some hot spots, including cortex, cancellous bone and bone marrow. What is more worrying is that tungsten changes in the body. Tungsten in the body is no longer inert element, but has chemical activity. Studies show that this accumulation of tungsten chemical composition. Unlike ordinary tungsten powder, it is more similar to phosphotungstate.

Phosphotungstate is a widely used industrial catalyst of Heteropoly acids. It can replace acidity and has redox property. Therefore, it can be used as acid catalyst and redox catalyst. It has the potential to intervene in biological processes occurring in bone marrow, cancellous bone-immune cell formation and bone growth. If phosphotungstate is formed during bone remodeling, there may be many harmful biochemical catalysts that affect essential bone functions, including growth, structure and the formation of immune cells. That's tungsten or health risks to humans.

At present, the World Health Organization has no regulations on tungsten content in drinking water, because tungsten has been considered non-toxic. However, the tungsten content level should be paid more attention to in water source areas with heavy metal pollution. Scientists will continue to study whether tungsten can promote tumorigenesis under various medical conditions, and try to understand the effects of tungsten on various biological processes, so as to develop new effective treatment methods for removing tungsten from human body.

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