A SAFETY STUDY OF THALLIUM-CONTAINING CERAMIC SUPERCONDUCTOR MATERIALIN RATS

Thallium is a highly toxic cumulative poison in humans and animals. Th e use of the metal as a component in ceramic superconductor material ( CSM) raised concern about the health risk of CSM to children accidenta lly swallowing some of the CSM or to occupationally-exposed workers in the electronics industry. This study examined the biological availabi lity of CSM by quantifying the thallium content in organs, blood and f ecal matter of Sprague-Dawley rats after a single acute oral exposure to CSM and compares these values to similar thallium measurements from identical exposure to thallium sulfate. The CSM-exposed group had sig nificantly less thallium than the thallium sulfate-exposed group in al l tissues/fluids analyzed. This suggested that CSM poses a lower healt h risk to exposed persons than thallium sulfate.