9. Health and environmental effects of gallium
Gallium is found in very small quantities in the human body. There are 0.7 mg of gallium in the body of a 70 kg person, with no proven dysfunction. Its presence is probably due to small traces in the environment, in water, vegetables and fruit. Some commercially distributed waters contain traces of gallium at levels below one ppm.
Pure gallium is not a harmful substance in small quantities. However, some gallium compounds can be very dangerous.
For example, exposure to gallium chloride (GaCl 3 ) can cause throat irritation, breathing difficulties, chest pain.
Gallium can make the use of plutonium in nuclear weapons tricky. In fact, it is used to maintain several bombs in nuclear wells, as its property of strongly absorbing neutrons...
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Health and environmental effects of gallium
Commercial products – Producers of gallium and its compounds
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