Antimony spots

Antimony spots are temporary pustular skin eruptions that afflict workers exposed to antimony compounds. Prolonged or acute exposure results in the build up of antimony in the tissues, especially in liver, kidney, adrenals and thyroid. Antimony(III) is considered to be more toxic than antimony(V) because it is relatively slowly excreted. Long term exposures (up to 28 years) have resulted in pneumoconiosis and emphysema, but even after a few months exposure (5-10 mg m-3) to fumes from antimony smelting pathological symptoms were observed, e.g. rhinitis, pharyngitis and tracheitis.174... 

C. Chronic exposure to antimony dusts and fiimes in the workpiace is the most oommon type of exposure and may resuit in headache, anorexia, pneumonitis, peptic uicers, and dermatitis (antimony spots). Sudden death pre-sumabiy resuiting from a direct cardiotoxic effect has been reported in workers exposed to antimony trisulfide. Antimony trioxide is a suspected carcinogen (lARC 2B). 

Analysis of zinc solutions at the purification stage before electrolysis is critical and several metals present in low concentrations are monitored carefully. Methods vary from plant to plant but are highly specific and usually capable of detecting 0.1 ppm or less. Colorimetric process-control methods are used for cobalt, antimony, and germanium, turbidimetric methods for cadmium and copper. Alternatively, cadmium, cobalt, and copper are determined polarographicaHy, arsenic and antimony by a modified Gutzeit test, and nickel with a dimethylglyoxime spot test. 

The material shall be clean and of uniform compn, and shall be free from segregations, dross, oxides, blow holes, hard spots, foreign material and other injurious defects. The material shall be furnished in commercial cylindrical ingots of specified dimensions Refs 1) Gmelin, Syst Nr 47, Teil -3 (1970), 905ff 2) Spec, Lead-Antimony (For Use... 

It is advisable to make sure that the rings and spots consist of arsenic and not of antimony this may be done ... 

Sterols Antimony (III) chloride (50% in acetic Variety of spots 99... 

In 1959 Harrison and Gilroy (3) demonstrated the detectability of barium, antimony and lead in firearm discharge residue using a specific "spot" test for each element. Inadequate colorimetric sensitivity for barium and antimony (I4.) has severely restricted the use of the method as a field tool. 

In 1959, Harrison and Gilroy introduced a method based on the detection of the metal-containing components of FDR.124 The metallic components involved, namely, lead, antimony, and barium, originate from the primer and the bullet (lead and antimony). The method is based on colorimetric spot tests and involves swabbing the suspect s hands with cotton cloth damped with 0.1 M hydrochloric acid. The swab is allowed to dry and is then tested with one or two drops of a 10% alcohol solution of triphenylmethylarsonium iodide. The appearance of an orange ring indicates the presence of antimony. 

At the starting point of the chromatogram, apply 0.015 mL of the Standard Solution and 0.01 mL of the Sample Solution. Develop the chromatogram in the chromatographic chamber lined with filter paper dipping into the solvent mixture. When the solvent has ascended 10 cm, remove the plate, allow it to dry in air, and spray it with antimony trichloride TS. The blue spot formed is indicative of the presence of retinol. The approximate Rf values of the predominant spots, corresponding to the different forms of retinol, are 0.1 for the alcohol, 0.45 for the acetate, and 0.7 for the palmitate. 

A modification of the above test is to place a drop of the solution containing antimony upon a genuine silver coin and to touch the coin through the drop with a piece of tin or zinc a black spot will form on the coin. 

The test solution should be strongly acid with hydrochloric acid and the antimony(III) oxidized by the addition of a little solid sodium or potassium nitrite a large excess of nitrite should be avoided. Place 1 ml reagent on a spot plate and add 1 drop test solution. The bright-red colour of the reagent changes to blue. 

Vitamin E compounds can be detected (about 20 /tg) as dark spots in UV light. They appear violet and detection is appreciably more sensitive (0.02 /tg) on layers that contain 0.02% Na-fluorescein. Moreover, these are visible in daylight as reddish spots (limit of detection 2 fig). The same effect is produced by spraying with fluorescein or dichlorofluorescein reagent. Nonspecific visualization procedures for tocopherols and tocotrienols are based on spraying with sulfuric acid, molybdophosphoric add, antimony(V) chloride, dipyridyl-iron reagent, nitric add, and copper(II) sulfate-phosphoric add [1-4]. 

In I960 Stahl suggested the separation of PBO from pyrethrins by means of a silica gel thin-layer chromatography, followed by treatment with antimony trichloride, which produces a violet spot in the presence of PBO (Zweig and Sherma, 1973). 

Porta s book Magia Naturalis, first published in 1558, a compendium of pop ular science, was reprinted for over 100 years A mixture of technical information and misinformation, it cites the procedure of the Greek physician and pharmacist Pedanius Dioscorides (ca 40-ca 90 A D ) for heating antimony" [really stibnite—see Saturn and the wolf in Figure 38(a)] into lead despite the fact that sixteenth-century practitioners knew they were different and could not be so in-terconverted Magia Naturalis includes a preparation of a cosmetic that will produce spots (a kind of fade-in cream for women)—a bit of Renaissance fraternity house humor perhaps ... 

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