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Antimony in the environment - the new global puzzle

2009; CSIRO Publishing; Volume: 6; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1071/en09036

1449-8979

William A. Maher,

Heavy Metal Exposure and Toxicity

Recent records in bogs [1] and Arctic polar ice cores [2] show a dramatic increase in antimony in the environment since the Industrial Revolution -probably because it is now being used extensively in industry [3] and for items such as car brake linings [4] and in fire retardants. [5]Air analyses in major cities show very high concentrations of antimony in air particulates, [6] and soil samples near motorways show enrichment in antimony. [7]As antimony has no known biological function, there is concern as to the long-term effects on ecosystems and humans from these increased levels.0] Its impact as an environmental contaminant is unclear and its toxicity to organisms is not well understood.Antimony is a global contaminant and there is an urgent need to improve our understanding of its biogeochemical cycling and behaviour, and risks associated with its presence in environmental systems.As well, data for environmental compartments such as groundwater [11,12] are sparse.It is clear that the natural biogeochemical cycle of Sb needs to be understood before the effects of global contamination can be assessed with confidence.It is timely to bring together a series of papers highlighting the biogeochemical cycling of Sb, its sources, transport through environmental compartments, and risk assessment.Thus, we present in the current Research Front a series of papers on various aspects of antimony's environmental chemistry in order to enable readers to get some insight into the topic and its pressing issues.The series includes two Reviews, a Highlight article and five Research papers.Review articles Filella et al. [13] in their Review discuss the environmental chemistry of Sb, calling for more focussed research, particularly in the areas of ecotoxicology and speciation analysis.They ask that researchers carefully read the primary literature as myths about Sb are being propagated.A further Review from Tschan et al. [14] highlights that, although available soil Sb is readily taken up by plants, little is known about Bill Maher (M.App.Sci.1977, Ph.D. 1981) is a professor in Environmental and Analytical Chemistry and Dean of Applied Science at the University of Canberra.His research interests are the biogeochemical cycling of trace metals, metalloids and nutrients in aquatic ecosystems, development of water-quality and sampling guidelines and development of analytical procedures for measuring trace contaminants in water, sediment and biota.