Toxic Levels of Mineral Elements

The toxic effects of the mineral elements are extremely element- and species-specific (Hapke 1991). The symptoms of acute poisoning (Geldmacher von Mallinckrodt 1991a) and chronic toxicity of inorganic elements can be completely different (Ewers and Schlipkoter 1991). The most common symptoms of acute metal poisoning include the following  

Not only arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, aluminum, molybdenum, and bromine, but also zinc, copper and selenium are uniformly toxic to the immune system, although the ultimate effect depends on the species of animals studied and the route and mode of administration. An important feature of inorganic toxicity is the observation that in animals, some metals affect the immune system at doses that are unaccompanied by other clinical manifestations of toxicity. A similar effect also occurs in man (Chowdhury and Chandra 1991) 

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