AlChemicalLife
Harmless
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Registered: 18-1-2011
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Mood: happy and ready for science
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Cobalt toxicity
Soo, I wanted to get back into doing some inorganic chemistry but a lot of the experiments I would like to do involve chromium compounds but at the
moment I really don't want to mess with chromium compounds.
So I thought I would give cobalt a shot, I've read the MSDS on a lot of the compounds I want to make and is seems cobalt compounds are pretty safe,
maybe a bit more toxic than copper compounds . But I would like a bit more information before I dive into the indevor .
Any thoughts?
Jim really attracted to the pretty colors of all these cobalt compounds 
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unionised
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It's important to remember that nothing is toxic as long as it's outside you.
If you ensure that you don't ingest or inhale it, you should be OK.
Cobalt (like copper) is a vital trace element in the body and, like copper (or anything else) too much of it is harmful.
I thin there's some suspicion that cobalt is carcinogenic; that doesn't stop me playing with it in my kitchen.
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Morgan
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Cobalt was used in beer.
http://www.campoly.com/blog/cobalt-brew-frothy-foam-sick-hea...
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yobbo II
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It's at the heart of vitamin b12
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zed
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Every ten year old in America, usta have a big batch of Cobalt Chloride in his "toy" Chemistry set.
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woelen
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I agree with unionised: just keep compounds outside of you and you have no problems.
Doing this is easy for transition metal salt experiments in aqueous solutions.
I see no reason why you can't experiment with chromium compounds. Chromium(III) actually is one of the less toxic transition metals (less so than
cobalt, nickel and copper). Chromium(VI) of course is another matter, but if you work with aqueous solutions and avoid spilling stuff on your skin,
then I hardly see any risk of experimenting with that. After experimenting, you simply destroy the chromium(VI) by adding some acid and a little
sulfite or a litle alcohol (the latter requires some patience though). If you create bubbling solutions, then loosely cover your beakers or open ends
of test tubes with tissue paper. The gas can escape, tiny droplets of solution will be captured by the tissue. This works especially well if you use
test tubes and loosely put a plug of paper tissue or toilet paper in the open end of the test tube if there is a bubbling reaction.
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