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Thallium
Thallium

Thallium is a chemical element with the symbol Tl and atomic number 81. This soft gray malleable poor metal resembles tin but discolors when exposed to air....
 and its compounds are very toxic, and should be handled with great care.. Contact with skin is dangerous, and adequate ventilation should be provided when melting this metal. Thallium(I) compounds have a high aqueous solubility
Solubility

Solubility is often seen as a property of a substance; for instance the solubility of a solid substance usually refers to the concentration of the substance in a liquid that has reached equilibrium with the substance in solid phase ....
 and are readily absorbed through the skin. Exposure to them should not exceed 0.1 mg per mē
Square metre

The square metre is the SI derived unit of area, with symbol m?. It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one metre....
 of skin in an 8-hour time-weighted average (40-hour work week). Thallium is a suspected human carcinogen
Carcinogen

The term carcinogen refers to any substance, radionuclide or radiation that is an agent directly involved in the promotion of cancer or in the increase of its propagation....
.

Part of the reason for thallium's high toxicity is that, when present in aqueous solution as the univalent thallium(I) ion (Tl+), it exhibits some similarities with essential alkali metal
Alkali metal

The alkali metals are a chemical series of chemical elements comprising Periodic table group of the periodic table: lithium , sodium , potassium , rubidium , caesium , and francium ....
 cations, particularly potassium
Potassium

Potassium is a chemical element. It has the symbol K , atomic number 19, and atomic mass 39.0983. Potassium was first isolated from potash, hence the name....
 (as the atomic radius is almost identical).






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Thallium
Thallium

Thallium is a chemical element with the symbol Tl and atomic number 81. This soft gray malleable poor metal resembles tin but discolors when exposed to air....
 and its compounds are very toxic, and should be handled with great care.. Contact with skin is dangerous, and adequate ventilation should be provided when melting this metal. Thallium(I) compounds have a high aqueous solubility
Solubility

Solubility is often seen as a property of a substance; for instance the solubility of a solid substance usually refers to the concentration of the substance in a liquid that has reached equilibrium with the substance in solid phase ....
 and are readily absorbed through the skin. Exposure to them should not exceed 0.1 mg per mē
Square metre

The square metre is the SI derived unit of area, with symbol m?. It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one metre....
 of skin in an 8-hour time-weighted average (40-hour work week). Thallium is a suspected human carcinogen
Carcinogen

The term carcinogen refers to any substance, radionuclide or radiation that is an agent directly involved in the promotion of cancer or in the increase of its propagation....
.

Part of the reason for thallium's high toxicity is that, when present in aqueous solution as the univalent thallium(I) ion (Tl+), it exhibits some similarities with essential alkali metal
Alkali metal

The alkali metals are a chemical series of chemical elements comprising Periodic table group of the periodic table: lithium , sodium , potassium , rubidium , caesium , and francium ....
 cations, particularly potassium
Potassium

Potassium is a chemical element. It has the symbol K , atomic number 19, and atomic mass 39.0983. Potassium was first isolated from potash, hence the name....
 (as the atomic radius is almost identical). It can thus enter the body via potassium uptake pathways. However, other aspects of thallium's chemistry are very different from that of the alkali metals (e.g., its high affinity for sulfur
Sulfur

Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element that has the atomic number 16. It is denoted with the symbol S. It is an abundant Valence non-metal....
 ligands due to the presence of empty d-orbitals), and so this substitution disrupts many cellular processes (for instance, thallium may attack sulfur-containing proteins such as cysteine
Cysteine

Cysteine is an a-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCHCH2SH. It is a non-essential amino acid, which means that humans can synthesize it....
 residues and ferredoxin
Ferredoxin

Ferredoxins are iron-sulfur proteins that mediate electron transfer in a range of metabolic reactions. The term "ferredoxin" was coined by D.C....
s).

Thallium's toxicity has led to its use (now discontinued in many countries) as a rat
Rat

Rats are various medium sized, long-tailed rodents of the Family Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus....
 and ant
Ant

Ants are Eusociality insects of the family Formicidae, and along with the related wasps and bees, they belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolution from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and Evolutionary radiation after the rise of flowering plants....
 poison.

Among the distinctive effects of thallium poisoning are loss of hair
Alopecia

Alopecia or hair loss is the medical description of the loss of hair from the head or body, sometimes to the extent of baldness. Unlike the common cosmetic depilation of body hair, alopecia tends to be involuntary and unwelcome, e.g., androgenic alopecia....
 (which led to its initial use as a depilatory before its toxicity was properly appreciated) and damage to peripheral nerves (victims may experience a sensation of walking on hot coals). Thallium was once an effective murder weapon before its effects became understood, and an antidote (Prussian blue
Prussian blue

Prussian blue is a very dark blue, colorfast, non-toxic pigment ? one of the first synthetic pigments ? which was discovered accidentally in Berlin in 1704....
) discovered.