1. A presentation made by Group 5 of
Saint Claire

2. Introduction
Introduction
Harmful Elements
Nickel Copper Arsenic Tin Beryllium
Mercury Polonium Plutonium Fluorine Cadmium
Conclusion
Conclusion

3. In ancient times, people of the distant had already found elements
such as gold and silver that could improve their work, decorate their houses and
even strengthen the infrastructures. They used them as medicines so that the sick
will be cured and to treat diseases, illnesses, ailments and the like.
People like Marie Curie and Glenn Seaborg had discovered more
elements as the immense technology improved. The periodic table, made by
Dmitri Mendeleev, was created to organize elements according to their similar
properties and to distinguish which is which. People like them received Nobel
prizes since they contributed important matters for the scientific world.
As people abused the usage of the elements, these things turned into
harmful. They turned the water into a sea of wasted chemicals, soil became
polluted, air became impure and even people became addicted. When they
are not handled carefully, they can be hazardous.

4. It's not yet too late to save our
dying Mother Earth. By following the
rules against pollution of our
government, in our own little ways, we
can change anything into something
that could free us from contamination.

5. Nickel
• It is a compound that occurs in
the environment only at very
low levels
• Humans use nickel for many
different applications such as an
ingredient of steel and metal
products
• Humans may be exposed to
nickel by breathing air, drinking
water, eating food or smoking
cigarettes
• Skin contact with nickel-
contaminated soil or water may
also result in nickel exposure.
• In small quantities nickel is
essential, but when the uptake is
too high it can be a danger to
human health.

6. Nickel
• It can be dangerous when the maximum
tolerable amounts are exceeded
• It can cause various kinds of cancer on
different sites within the bodies of animals,
mainly of those that live near refineries
• High nickel concentrations on sandy soils
can clearly damage plants and high nickel
concentrations in surface waters can
diminish the growth rates of algae.
• Microorganisms can also suffer from growth
decline due to the presence of nickel

7. Copper
• Copper does not break down
in the environment and
because of that it can
accumulate in plants and
animals when it is found in soils
• Due to the effects upon
plants, it is a serious threat to
the productions of farmlands
• When the soils of farmland are
polluted with copper, animals
will absorb concentrations
that are damaging to their
health.
• Humans can be exposed to
this element by eating,
drinking and breathing

8. Copper
• Long-term exposure to copper can cause
irritation of the nose, mouth and eyes and it
causes headaches, stomach-aches,
dizziness, vomiting and diarrhea.
• High uptakes of copper may cause liver
and kidney damage and even death.
• Chronic copper poisoning results in Wilson’s
disease
– It is characterized by
• hepatic cirrhosis
• brain damage
• Demyelization
• renal disease
• copper deposition in the cornea

9. Arsenic
• Exposure through arsenic may
be gotten from food, water,
skin contact with soil or water
that contains arsenic
• Toxicity of arsenic varies like in
food
• Its toxicity is high for the reason
that they may absorb arsenic
in their aquatic habitat
• Few amount of arsenic may
be harmless but with
significant amount of it may
bring danger to the health of
human

10. Arsenic
• Arsenic is produced by emitted
copper producing companies and
also in agriculture by lead and zinc
production
• Once it entered the environment, it
cannot be destroyed resulting to
absorption of plants and other
organism, high concentration of
these can lead to health effects

11. Tin
• Tin has organic substances but
these effects can vary
• It has an atom that may not be
toxic, but its organic form is toxic
• It is dependent on what kind of
substance that is present and the
organism that is exposed to it. One
example is the most dangerous for
humans which is Triethyltin.
• When hydrogen bonds grow longer
a tin substance will be less
dangerous to human health, but
with the case of Triethyltin in this
case it has relatively short hydrogen
bonds

12. Tin
• Its organic form is maintain in the
environment is a very long time
and are not fairly biodegradable
• Microorganisms having a hard
time breaking down these
concentrations of organic tin
rises
• Tributyltins are the most toxic tin
components to fish and fungi.

13. Beryllium
• We are exposed to slight levels of beryllium through
the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we
breathe
• Levels of exposure to beryllium are extremely low,
regardless if you live or work near beryllium industries
• Berylliosis, a lung inflammation caused by inhaling of
particulates or fumes that contain beryllium, occurs
in both chronic and acute forms
– This disease can effect other organs like kidneys, heart, liver,
spleen lymph nodes and skin
• It can be transported as particles that are released
into the atmosphere or can be dissolved compounds
in waters
• Beryllium and its compounds have a high acute
toxicity to the aquatic life

14. Mercury
• It has been considered as a valuable natural
resource with various or wide range of applications,
for over a millennia
• It is one of the first elements to be discovered and
utilized by humans since this exist in nature
• It is used in barometers and thermometers
• When a thermometer breaks, the mercury vaporizes
and a significant high exposure to mercury may
occur through breathing in just a short period of
time
• This element can cause:
– Lung irritation
– Eye irritation
– Skin rashes
– Nerve brain and kidney damage
– Diarrhea
– Vomiting

15. Mercury
• It can be naturally found
spewing from volcanoes,
evaporating off bodies of
water and rising gas from
the earth’s crust
• The mercury in the soil
can also build up in
mushrooms
• The effects of the
elements to animals are
– Kidney damage
– Stomach disruption
– Intestinal damage
– DNA alteration
– Reproductive failure

16. Polonium
• It is an extremely unstable radioactive element
• Polonium is not a health hazard if it’s outside the body
(can only be harmful if it’s taken inside the body)
• When inhaled, some of it will stay in the lungs. Half of it
that stays in the body can be found in spleen, kidneys
and liver.
• When inhaled, especially from a cigarette smoke, it can
damage the cells lining the airways within the lungs
which can lead to lung cancer.
• Alpha particles (a positively charged particle ejected
spontaneously from the nuclei of some radioactive
elements) emitted by this element can disrupt cell
structures, damage DNA and can cause cell death.

17. Plutonium
• It is a silvery-white radioactive metal
• It can enter the body by inhalation of air, ingestion of
food and water and through open wounds
• Internal exposure to plutonium is an extremely serious
health hazard. It generally stays in the body for
decades, exposing organs and tissues to radiation,
and increasing the risk of cancer.
• When the bones and liver absorbed and collected a
large amount of plutonium in our body, they will
become concentrated and be at risk
• Ingestion or inhalation of large amounts of plutonium
may cause acute radiation poisoning and death

18. Plutonium
• It may enter water surface
from accidental releases
and disposal of radioactive
wastes
• Soil can become
contaminated with
plutonium through fallout
during the testing of nuclear
weapons. It slowly moves
downwards in the soil and
into the groundwater, thus
making it also
contaminated

19. Fluorine
• A poisonous pale yellow gaseous element
• Skin contact results in painful deep-seated burns that are
slow to heal
• It can cause severe burns to the eyes, which may lead to
permanent damage and blindness.
• Exposure to higher concentrations can result in serious
damage to the lungs, and fatal pulmonary edema may
develop after a delay of several hours.
• Ingestion of fluorine can produce severe injury to the
mouth, throat, and gastrointestinal tract and may be
fatal or deadly

20. Cadmium
• It is soft, bluish-white metal is
chemically similar to the two other
metals in group 12, zinc and mercury
• Breathing high levels of cadmium
may severely damage the lungs and
can even cause death
• It can irreversibly damage the lungs,
producing shortness of breath and
emphysema
• Cadmium stays in the body a very long
time and can build up from many years of
exposure to low levels
• Eating food or drinking water with very
high levels severely irritates the stomach,
causing vomiting and diarrhea.

21. The price we pay for using so many different types of material is
pollution. This occurs when we release substances into the environment which
harm living things as well as structures. Today, some of our machines, factories
and power stations disfigure the environment. Some of the wastes do not break
up but rather pollute the land, water and the air.
We can help pollution get better by slowing down a lot of things such
as not using the car as much and not littering because littering doesn't just affect
our land but affects animals in the ocean and on land. We are as well but little
do we know it we also get affected by pollution it is said that it can give you
cancer by inhaling polluted air. You can do your bit by walking from place to
place if it is walking distance and don't litter because we do share the world with
other nations and they get affected by pollution as well.