Other Trace Elements

The atmosphere may be an important transport medium for many other trace elements. Lead and other metals associated with industrial activity are found in remote ice caps and sediments. The transport of iron in wind-blown soil may provide this nutrient to remote marine areas. There may be phosphorus in the form of phosphine, PH3, although the detection of volatile phosphorus has not been convincingly or extensively reported to date. 

Class Compound Typical source Probable sink Concentration 

Aliphatic ketones Acetone Animal waste hv 0-10 ppbv 

Aliphatic acids Formic acid Rain 0-100 ppbv 

Chronic exposure to silver produces a bluish skin discoloration known as argyria. Gold poisoning has resulted from the use of gold salts for treatment of arthritis. Poisoning from antimony, arsenic, bismuth, mercury, and thallium is well known. 

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Iron. The total body content of iron, ie, 3—5 g, is recycled more efficientiy than other metals. There is no mechanism for excretion of iron and what Httie iron is lost daily, ie, ca 1 mg in the male and 1.5 mg in the menstmating female, is lost mainly through exfoHated mucosal, skin, or hair ceUs, and menstmal blood (74—76). Common food sources rich in iron and other trace elements are Hsted in Table 10. 

Treatment of slimes for economic recovery of silver, gold, selenium, tellurium, and other trace elements requires fusion and oxidation in a furnace. The furnace gases are exhausted through a wet scrubber followed by an ESP to recover the metals. 

Alloy of iron containing up to 2% carbon and other trace elements. It is a common construction material. 

Hauri EH, Wagner TP, Grove TL (1994) Experimental and natural partitioning of Th U Pb and other trace elements between garnet clinopyroxene and basaltic melts. Chem Geol 117 149-166 Hazen RM, Finger LW (1979) Bulk Modulus-volume relationship for cation-anion polyhedra. J Geophys Res 84 6723-6728... 

Leeman WP, Phelps DW (1981) Partitioning of rare earths and other trace elements between sanidine and coexisting volcanic glass. J Geophys Res 86 10193-10199 Linnen RL, Keppler H (2002) Melt composition control of Zr/Hf fractionation in magmatic processes. Geochim Comsochim Acta 66 3293-3301... 

Nutrients—Nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus and other trace elements, are necessary for cell growth because they are key biological building blocks.52,53 Addition of nutrients as a supplement helps ensure that concentrations of nutrients do not become a limiting factor for bioremediation. 

The bones and teeth of humans and other vertebrate animals, for example, consist mainly of a composite material made up of an organic substance, collagen, and a biomineral, calcium carbonate phosphate (see Textboxes 32 and 61). The latter, which makes up about two-thirds of the total dry weight of bone, is composed of calcium phosphate containing between 4-6% calcite (composed of calcium carbonate) as well as small amounts of sodium, magnesium, fluorine, and other trace elements. The formula Ca HPChXPChMCChXOH) approximately represents its composition its crystal structure is akin to that... 

Soil redox also strongly affects solubility of the compounds of other trace elements in arid soils. Amrhein et al. (1993) found that Fe, Mn, Ni and V in an evaporation pond soil were more soluble under reducing conditions. Han and Banin (2000) reported that after one year of saturated incubation, the solubility of Fe, Mn, Co, V, Ni, Cu and Zn in two Israeli arid soils with 0.5-23% CaC03 increased, while the solubility of Cd decreased with time. During saturated incubation, soil pH in highly calcareous arid soil containing high content of carbonates decreased. In a loessial soil from Israel, Han and Banin (1996) reported that soil pH decreased from 8.0 to 7.0-7.4 over saturated incubation. With the decrease in Eh over incubation, the parameter pe+pH also decreased from initial values of 12-13.6 to 4 after initial 7-9 days of saturation incubation. 

Removal of sulfur and other trace elements from the off-gas and liquid iron... 

Wet oxidation of samples of biological origin with a mixture of nitric acid and perchloric acid is a common procedure that may be problematic in certain cases. An alternative procedure for sample preparation is irradiation with a strong UV source. Acidified samples of hair (0.1 g) containing about 2 pg Pb and other trace elements, were irradiated for 3 h with a 500 W source a buffer (pH 5.5) and a small amount of catechol violet (9) were added, and the complex of the dye with the trace elements was determined polarographically RSD ca 5% for Pb95. 

Kirchgessner, M., F.J. Schwarz, E. Grassmann, and H. Steinhart. 1979. Interactions of copper with other trace elements. Pages 433-472 in J.O. Nriagu (ed.). Copper in the Environment. Part 2 Health Effects. John Wiley, NY. 

Hill, C.H. 1975. Interrelationships of selenium with other trace elements. Fed. Proc. 34 2096-2100. 

Nakamoto, R.J. and T.J. Hassler. 1992. Selenium and other trace elements in bluegills from agricultural return flows in the San Joaquin Valley, California. Arch. Environ. Contamin. Toxicol. 22 88-98. 

Smedley, P.L., Zhang, M., Zhang, G., Luo, Z. 2003. Mobilisation of arsenic and other trace elements in fluviolacustrine aquifers of the Huhhot Basin, Inner Mongolia. Applied Geochemistry, 18, 1453-1477. 

The flux of chemical elements per unit area in tundra ecosystems is not proportional to the plant uptake. Presumably, some elements, like Zn and Cu, are taken up selectively, whereas other trace elements, like Ti, Zr, V, or Y, are absorbed passively, depending on their content in the environmental media. 

The irrigation systems were constructed in this valley in 1930-1960s. It was found afterward that irrigation drainage water from parts of the San Joaquin Valley contains levels of selenium and other trace elements that have been implicated in bird deformations in the Kesterson Reservoir. Depending on location and season, the drainage water contains 100-1400 pg/L Se, predominantly as selenate (SeO 2, Se-IV), the most soluble form, whereas the California State Water Resources Control Board has recommended an interim maximum mean monthly selenium concentration of 2-5 pg/L in receiving waters and wetlands. 

Probably the most effective use of XRF and TXRF continues to be in the analysis of samples of biological origin. For instance, TXRF has been used without a significant amount of sample preparation to determine the metal cofactors in enzyme complexes [86]. The protein content in a number of enzymes has been deduced through a TXRF of the sulfur content of the component methionine and cysteine [87]. It was found that for enzymes with low molecular weights and minor amounts of buffer components that a reliable determination of sulfur was possible. In other works, TXRF was used to determine trace elements in serum and homogenized brain samples [88], selenium and other trace elements in serum and urine [89], lead in whole human blood [90], and the Zn/Cu ratio in serum as a means to aid cancer diagnosis [91]. 

Casetta, B., Giaretta, A., and Mezzacasa, G. (1990). Determination of rare earth and other trace elements in rock samples by ICP-mass spectrometry comparison with other techniques. Atomic Spectroscopy 11 222-228. 

For other trace elements, about which relatively less is known, the evidence for substantial variability is on the whole less impressive though by no means nonexistent. With respect to copper, Valleel4 says that "most investigators agree that the serum copper level of normal individuals is remarkably constant, and in our experience, in... 

PSA air separation is the problem of separating the O2 contained in air from the N2. Along with the N2 there is Ukely to be water, CO2, Ar and several other trace elements present in air. Of these trace elements Ar has a measurable impact on the purity limit on delivered O2. 

Follow-up ground studies involved the analysis of outer bark from western hemlock collected at 100 m sample spacing over the Tl anomaly south of Tsuius Creek. This permitted more clearly defining the extent of the Tl anomaly (600 m X 600 m) and its relationship to other trace elements. Figure 1 shows the Tl anomaly and the spatial relationship of Hg which appears to define a conjugate set of lineaments interpreted as leakage from structural weakness. The multi-element association at this locality suggests that Tl and Hg may be pathfinder elements to concealed base-metal mineralization. 

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