A project in our chemistry class. It is about some periodic elements that are dangerous to the environment and to our health.

1. “The consequence of overusing
the elements that shouldn’t have
been touched by man”

2. • All of the elements know to man have their own
properties and uses
• Some are used in our daily lives, some are used for
industry while others are used for the military programs
• Common people usually ignore and don’t notice how the
things they used could affect their lives. Some don’t even
know that the things they are eating are toxic.
• Our knowledge of the elements has opened us to a world
of technology and progress but in all those discoveries,
some consequences have arose.

3. • All of the elements has their useful and harmful uses to
us humans and to the environment given the chance
• The range of damage that an element can bring will
depend on its toxicity, reactivity, and many more chemical
elements
• Element can bring forth damage to the environment by
natural causes but nature as they say will heal istelf no
matter what damage was done
• Apparently, it goes different when the damage was
caused by humans and how we misuse and improperly
dispose of them

4. • Most of the higly dangerous metals come from the Heavy
Metals or Transition metals
• Here are some example of elements that can destroy and
endanger our health and environment through their
properties of being corrosive, toxic or very reactive. But
the pollution they cause is aided by our carelessness:
• Lead
• Mercury
• Plutonium
• Cadmium
• Chromium

5. • Lead is a bright and silvery metal with a very slight shade
of blue in a dry atmosphere
• It is an element with high density, softness, ductility, poor
electrical conductivity and high resistance to corrosion
• It is used in many products all throughout the industry

6. • Uses
• Lead is commonly used in making paint, oxide in glass,
ceramics, gasoline ingredient, car batteries and casting
metals

7. • It is the introduction of lead to the atmosphere where it
affects the environment
• It is caused mostly by cars from the past, lead smelters,
metal processing plants and incinerators
• The cause of its spread was that no one knew years ago
that lead was dangerous and it was used in mass
productions for its cheap manufactory cost

8. • Effect is causes on Human and Animal health:
• Lead poisoning is acquired from polluted air, lead contaminated
water or soil and products contaminated with lead
• Upon ingestions or contact, Lead is known to damage the inner
organs of the body, affecting the nervous system
• In some casesm the effects of lead poisoning appear after a long
span of time which results in osteoporosis and reproductive
disorders like mutation or birth defects on offspring
• With the right amount of energy, Lead can kill a person after it is
absorbed into the body

9. • Known sometimes as quicksilver, Mercury is the only
known metal to be in liquid state at ordinary temperature
and pressure
• It is a poor conductor of heat but fair conductor of
electricity
• It appears as a silvery-white metal in liquid form

10. • Uses
• used in barometers and manometers for its high density
• It is also used widely in thermometer bulbs but less in light bulbd
• It is also used ease in amalgamating with gold is used in the
recovery of gold from its ores
• Industry uses mercury metal as a liquid electrode in the
manufacture of chlorine and sodium hydroxide by electrolysis of
brine

11. • It enters the environment as a result of normal
breakdown of minerals in rocks and soil through
exposure to wind and water and ends up in the soil or
water surface
• Once mercury has reached surface waters or soils
microorganisms can have nerve damage
• Upon exposure, Mercury will affects the immune system,
alters genetic and enzyme systems, and damages the
nervous system, including coordination and the senses of
touch, taste, and sight
***Note: A spill of just three tablespoons of mercury will require a hazardous
waste response team***

12. • Mercury can be ingested through air exposure, drinking
contaminated water or contaminated food, mostly fish
• Upon ingestion, a normal person will experience this
symptoms
- Disruption of the nervous system
- Damage to brain functions
- DNA damage and chromosomal damage
- Allergic reactions, resulting in skin rashes, tiredness and
headaches
- Negative reproductive effects, such as sperm damage, birth
defects and miscarriages
- nerve, brain and kidney damage
-lung irritation
• -eye irritation
• -skin rashes
• -vomiting and diarrhea.

13. • It is a transuranic radioactive element
• It is also known to be the heaviest primordial element
• This element is a mostly a byproduct of nuclear fissions

14. • It is commonly used in nuclear facilities
• Also used in making radiological weapons
Consequences and danger:
• Plutonium may enter the environment from releases of
nuclear reactors, weapons production plants, and
research facilities
• It is described as the most toxic substance to man for the
“alpha radiation” it emits can irradiate internal organs
when plutonium is inhaled or ingested

15. • Heath effects:
• Once breathed in, it wmay remain inside the lungs or move to the
other organs or bones
• Plutonium will stay inside the body for a long time and will continue
to expose body tissues to radiation
• Extremely small particles of plutonium on the order of micrograms
can cause lung cancer if inhaled into the lungs
• Larger amounts of Plutonium may cause acute radiation poisoning
• It can also cause reproductive failure

16. • Cadmium is a lustrous, silver-white, ductile, very malleable
metal. Its surface has a bluish tinge and the metal is soft
enough to be cut with a knife, but it tarnishes in air.
• It is soluble in acids but not in alkalis. It is similar in many
aspects to zinc
• Cadmium also consists in the industries as an
inevitable by-product of zinc, lead and
copper extraction
• It is exposed and distributed mostly on the
ground for it is used mostly in pesticides and manure

17. • Health and Environmental Effects:
• Upon being breathed in, Cadmium can severely damage the lungs
and can lead to death
• It can also travel throughout the body causing damge especially to
thje kidneys resulting into Cadmium Poisoning
• Other effects are diarrhea, brain and nerve damage, and
reproductive failure
• In the environment, Cadmium can cause damage when animals
ingest it ranging from earthworms absorbing it in the soil and
microorganism absorbing it in the water

18. • It is a lustrous, brittle, hard metal
• Chromium is unstable in oxygen, it immediately produces
a thin oxide layer that is impermeable to oxygen and
protects the metal below.