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With de definition "heavy metals are a group of elements between copper and mercury" you are excluding, for example, the heavy metal lead.
This article doesn't really talk about anything associated with heavy metals The hub 12:08, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
Gold is a heavy metal poison also. It is just hard to find soluable compounds of it, but they do exist and will bioaccumulate.
I do not think Tungsten is 'horribly toxic', I think it has a mediocre toxicity, and does not bioaccumulate.
I don't think beryllium, the second lightest metal and the fourth lightest element, should be included in the definition of heavy metals. However, mentioning that light, but toxic, metals are sometimes incorrectly called heavy metals would be fine. -- Kjkolb 02:03, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
I'm sorry, I am confused, a search of wikipedia will aid you to discover that both beryllium and potassium are (as labeled according to other wikipedia users) the "second lightest metals" since I doubt this is true, could someone who knows please verify which one of these two entries is true, following is the link to the Potassium article. Thanks for your help.
A request for the above separate page was put on the Expansion page.
A minor point for the article on creation - the use of heavy metals in "detective fiction poisoning" - Arsenic and Old Lace, and thallium in Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse. Jackiespeel 17:20, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Shouldn't the title of this page be Heavy metal rather than Heavy metals, by Wikipedia:Naming conventions? ― Wmahan . 06:32, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
Heavy metal is also a musical genre,so maybe it's better to keep it the way it is right now.
I got to this page from a link from Omega-3_fatty_acid, in particular, am interested in which foods have a high risk of heavy metals (such as certain fish... which ones?), and in what magnitudes?
Friday, 10-6-06; Portland, OR; 12:04pm West Coast Pacific Time
Is there an expert on this "Talk:Heavy metals (comment)" page who knows how to artificially increase the physical weight of a small piece of metal (say the size of a 1/2 inch diameter galvanized steel washer)? Is this only theory, or has this concept actually been proven? bear in mind, that I wish to affect only the weight of this size and not the physical dimensions of this size; in other words: Is it possible to artificially increase the weight of a 1/2 inch diameter steel washer to an indefinite weight such as, for example, 50 lbs., 100 lbs., 150 lbs., 200 lbs., 500 lbs., or even to a weight of 1,000 lbs.? Why would I want to try this? For a private science project I'm cogitating.
-- MyPresentCPUisTooSlow 19:33, 6 October 2006 (UTC)MyPresentCPUisTooSlow
I'm not sure if that was the appropriate tag, but this article does not read like an encyclopedic entry should. I don't currently have the knowledge to update the article properly, so hopefully this tag will draw someone in. Maghnus 05:39, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
The paragraph about free radicals and their link with heavy metals seems to be unmitigated pseudoscience. In particular, it's contradicted by a lot of the article on Chelation therapy. Also, eating foods rich in fibre is hardly going to "wisk metals out of the digestive tract", and stating that phytonutrients have "an extra electron which is used to deactivate free radicals" would offend any semi-knowledgeable biology student, not least because the term "phytonutrients" encompasses a huge variety of different compounds. I'm deleting the paragraph entirely as there's very little there to salvage. Kupos 20:06, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
Is depleted Uranium classified as a heavy metal? Would it be an acceptable example (it is quite dense, it is a metal, so I would be hard pressed to deny that it is a heavy metal).
It would be prudent to list some of the common problems associated with certain heavy metals – including, for example : 1)Mercury 2)Lead 3)The list could go on – but you get the picture.
Some metals are already mentioned - but I was hoping more for a systematic list (say, a list of all metals in the periodic table, together with comments concerning the MANY different alloys of them which are present in industrial society and how alloying can affect toxicity, etc...).
Common symptoms which both “major” exposure are associated with, as well as “minor” exposure (ie: low level background exposure for prolonged time periods).
Common methods of detection (some simple, scientific, “back garden” methods of detecting and calibrating concentrations of heavy metals in water and food supplies sounds like a good idea here).
It is worth adding the comment that even minor amounts of heavy metal, when they find themselves in body tissue, have the effect of negatively affecting nervous cells, etc....- but this is probably too obvious to mention.
MrASMafmo ( talk) 21:02, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
Heavy metal, in most cases, is pejorative, so I've long understood it to exclude essential minerals. Then again, I see that balance is important, so I can understand some authors including Zinc. Beryllium is a hard case, since it's lighter than many inevitable elements of biology (carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus). Lead is clearly in the category. So are Tin and antimony. I mean to avoid saying "Heavy Metal" without excluding transition metals. I've got this tap water dechlorinator that says on the bottle that it removes Heavy Metals. I'm not going to believe that until I see a precipitate. BrewJay ( talk) 10:02, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
194.66.226.95 ( talk) 15:17, 7 June 2008 (UTC)
Bismuth is not stable. Tailsfan2 ( talk) 22:30, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
The article says: One source defines heavy metal as one of the "common transition metals, such as copper, lead, and zinc. Well, that source isn't worth citing as whoever wrote it doesn't know that lead is not a transition metal - it's a group 4 element. 194.75.159.78 ( talk) 13:23, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
As the article indicates, the meaning of heavy metal is unclear. This article thus joins a collection of similarly dubious articles including toxic metals, gold salts, and now light metals. I am sure that the creation of these articles was motivated by good intentions, but as a chemist, I think that these articles do a net disservice to the readership: they delude readers into thinking that these terms have merit among mainstream chemists. -- Smokefoot ( talk) 17:17, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
Arsenic (As) is not a metal at all. I suggest to remove As completely from the text as this element being listed here is even more misleading than the term "heavy metal" itself. C.wolke ( talk) 20:43, 12 February 2010 (UTC)
I removed the sidebar link to the Latin article since that article deals with Heavy Metal music and not with chemistry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.217.149.46 ( talk) 19:52, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
@ Smokefoot: You added a 'clarification needed' tag to the opening sentence, which currently reads: "A heavy metal is any metal or metalloid of environmental concern." Could you elaborate as to what clarification you were looking for? Sandbh ( talk) 09:55, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
The lede says "The term originated with reference to the harmful effects of metals like ..." but the second paragraph of § Definitions says "The origin of the term is not clear." Seems like one of these needs to be changed a bit. YBG ( talk) 04:14, 1 May 2015 (UTC)
I've removed a bit of over-use of toxic. Seems the rewrite last spring was rather over-done with every occurrence of heavy metal replaced with toxic heavy metal. Seems the over-use of toxic was a case of WP:OR by a naive or rather careless editor. Vsmith ( talk) 21:44, 5 September 2015 (UTC)
Suggested file to add to this article. — Cirt ( talk) 17:04, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
Lead poisoning is common amongst societies and individuals that distill (almost alwasy illegaly) alcohol using copper pipine and other equipment that is soldered together. High temperature vapours leach significant quantities of lead from the solder, thus contaminating the alcohol. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 101.161.4.233 ( talk) 08:33, 22 January 2016 (UTC)
FYI, the meaning and usage of Heavy metal ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) is under discussion, for the move request, see talk:heavy metal music -- 64.229.90.172 ( talk) 05:49, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 8 January 2024 and 20 April 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Grishaplantman ( article contribs).
— Assignment last updated by Warmedforbs ( talk) 01:25, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
This
level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
With de definition "heavy metals are a group of elements between copper and mercury" you are excluding, for example, the heavy metal lead.
This article doesn't really talk about anything associated with heavy metals The hub 12:08, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
Gold is a heavy metal poison also. It is just hard to find soluable compounds of it, but they do exist and will bioaccumulate.
I do not think Tungsten is 'horribly toxic', I think it has a mediocre toxicity, and does not bioaccumulate.
I don't think beryllium, the second lightest metal and the fourth lightest element, should be included in the definition of heavy metals. However, mentioning that light, but toxic, metals are sometimes incorrectly called heavy metals would be fine. -- Kjkolb 02:03, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
I'm sorry, I am confused, a search of wikipedia will aid you to discover that both beryllium and potassium are (as labeled according to other wikipedia users) the "second lightest metals" since I doubt this is true, could someone who knows please verify which one of these two entries is true, following is the link to the Potassium article. Thanks for your help.
A request for the above separate page was put on the Expansion page.
A minor point for the article on creation - the use of heavy metals in "detective fiction poisoning" - Arsenic and Old Lace, and thallium in Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse. Jackiespeel 17:20, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Shouldn't the title of this page be Heavy metal rather than Heavy metals, by Wikipedia:Naming conventions? ― Wmahan . 06:32, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
Heavy metal is also a musical genre,so maybe it's better to keep it the way it is right now.
I got to this page from a link from Omega-3_fatty_acid, in particular, am interested in which foods have a high risk of heavy metals (such as certain fish... which ones?), and in what magnitudes?
Friday, 10-6-06; Portland, OR; 12:04pm West Coast Pacific Time
Is there an expert on this "Talk:Heavy metals (comment)" page who knows how to artificially increase the physical weight of a small piece of metal (say the size of a 1/2 inch diameter galvanized steel washer)? Is this only theory, or has this concept actually been proven? bear in mind, that I wish to affect only the weight of this size and not the physical dimensions of this size; in other words: Is it possible to artificially increase the weight of a 1/2 inch diameter steel washer to an indefinite weight such as, for example, 50 lbs., 100 lbs., 150 lbs., 200 lbs., 500 lbs., or even to a weight of 1,000 lbs.? Why would I want to try this? For a private science project I'm cogitating.
-- MyPresentCPUisTooSlow 19:33, 6 October 2006 (UTC)MyPresentCPUisTooSlow
I'm not sure if that was the appropriate tag, but this article does not read like an encyclopedic entry should. I don't currently have the knowledge to update the article properly, so hopefully this tag will draw someone in. Maghnus 05:39, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
The paragraph about free radicals and their link with heavy metals seems to be unmitigated pseudoscience. In particular, it's contradicted by a lot of the article on Chelation therapy. Also, eating foods rich in fibre is hardly going to "wisk metals out of the digestive tract", and stating that phytonutrients have "an extra electron which is used to deactivate free radicals" would offend any semi-knowledgeable biology student, not least because the term "phytonutrients" encompasses a huge variety of different compounds. I'm deleting the paragraph entirely as there's very little there to salvage. Kupos 20:06, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
Is depleted Uranium classified as a heavy metal? Would it be an acceptable example (it is quite dense, it is a metal, so I would be hard pressed to deny that it is a heavy metal).
It would be prudent to list some of the common problems associated with certain heavy metals – including, for example : 1)Mercury 2)Lead 3)The list could go on – but you get the picture.
Some metals are already mentioned - but I was hoping more for a systematic list (say, a list of all metals in the periodic table, together with comments concerning the MANY different alloys of them which are present in industrial society and how alloying can affect toxicity, etc...).
Common symptoms which both “major” exposure are associated with, as well as “minor” exposure (ie: low level background exposure for prolonged time periods).
Common methods of detection (some simple, scientific, “back garden” methods of detecting and calibrating concentrations of heavy metals in water and food supplies sounds like a good idea here).
It is worth adding the comment that even minor amounts of heavy metal, when they find themselves in body tissue, have the effect of negatively affecting nervous cells, etc....- but this is probably too obvious to mention.
MrASMafmo ( talk) 21:02, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
Heavy metal, in most cases, is pejorative, so I've long understood it to exclude essential minerals. Then again, I see that balance is important, so I can understand some authors including Zinc. Beryllium is a hard case, since it's lighter than many inevitable elements of biology (carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus). Lead is clearly in the category. So are Tin and antimony. I mean to avoid saying "Heavy Metal" without excluding transition metals. I've got this tap water dechlorinator that says on the bottle that it removes Heavy Metals. I'm not going to believe that until I see a precipitate. BrewJay ( talk) 10:02, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
194.66.226.95 ( talk) 15:17, 7 June 2008 (UTC)
Bismuth is not stable. Tailsfan2 ( talk) 22:30, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
The article says: One source defines heavy metal as one of the "common transition metals, such as copper, lead, and zinc. Well, that source isn't worth citing as whoever wrote it doesn't know that lead is not a transition metal - it's a group 4 element. 194.75.159.78 ( talk) 13:23, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
As the article indicates, the meaning of heavy metal is unclear. This article thus joins a collection of similarly dubious articles including toxic metals, gold salts, and now light metals. I am sure that the creation of these articles was motivated by good intentions, but as a chemist, I think that these articles do a net disservice to the readership: they delude readers into thinking that these terms have merit among mainstream chemists. -- Smokefoot ( talk) 17:17, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
Arsenic (As) is not a metal at all. I suggest to remove As completely from the text as this element being listed here is even more misleading than the term "heavy metal" itself. C.wolke ( talk) 20:43, 12 February 2010 (UTC)
I removed the sidebar link to the Latin article since that article deals with Heavy Metal music and not with chemistry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.217.149.46 ( talk) 19:52, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
@ Smokefoot: You added a 'clarification needed' tag to the opening sentence, which currently reads: "A heavy metal is any metal or metalloid of environmental concern." Could you elaborate as to what clarification you were looking for? Sandbh ( talk) 09:55, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
The lede says "The term originated with reference to the harmful effects of metals like ..." but the second paragraph of § Definitions says "The origin of the term is not clear." Seems like one of these needs to be changed a bit. YBG ( talk) 04:14, 1 May 2015 (UTC)
I've removed a bit of over-use of toxic. Seems the rewrite last spring was rather over-done with every occurrence of heavy metal replaced with toxic heavy metal. Seems the over-use of toxic was a case of WP:OR by a naive or rather careless editor. Vsmith ( talk) 21:44, 5 September 2015 (UTC)
Suggested file to add to this article. — Cirt ( talk) 17:04, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
Lead poisoning is common amongst societies and individuals that distill (almost alwasy illegaly) alcohol using copper pipine and other equipment that is soldered together. High temperature vapours leach significant quantities of lead from the solder, thus contaminating the alcohol. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 101.161.4.233 ( talk) 08:33, 22 January 2016 (UTC)
FYI, the meaning and usage of Heavy metal ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) is under discussion, for the move request, see talk:heavy metal music -- 64.229.90.172 ( talk) 05:49, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 8 January 2024 and 20 April 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Grishaplantman ( article contribs).
— Assignment last updated by Warmedforbs ( talk) 01:25, 18 April 2024 (UTC)