Anthropogenic impacts on the biogeochemistry and cycling of antimony

Antimony is a potentially toxic trace element with no known biological function. Antimony is commonly enriched in coals, and fossil fuel combustion appears to be the largest single source of anthropogenic Sb to the global atmosphere. Abundant in sulfide minerals, its emission to the atmosphere from anthropogenic activities is linked to the mining and metallurgy of non-ferrous metals, especially Pb, Cu, and Zn. In particular, the geochemical and mineralogical association of Sb with Pb minerals implies that, like Pb, Sb has been emitted to the environment for thousands of years because of Pb mining, smelting, and refining. In the US alone, there are more than 400 former secondary lead smelting operations and worldwide there are 133 Pb-Zn smelters in operation today. Antimony is used in creating and improving dozens of industrial and commercial materials including various alloys, ceramics, glasses, plastics, and synthetic fabrics, making waste incineration another important source of Sb to the environment. Enrichments of Sb in atmospheric aerosols, plants, soils, sediments, as well as alpine and polar snow and ice suggest that Sb contamination is extensive, but there are very few quantitative studies of the geographic extent, intensity, and chronology of this contamination. There is an urgent need to quantify the extent of human impacts and how these have changed with time. The decreasing inventories of anthropogenic Sb with time in peat cores from Switzerland and Scotland suggest that the atmospheric Sb flux may be declining, but there have been too few studies to make any general conclusions. In fact, some studies of sediments and biomonitors in central Europe show little decline in Sb concentrations during the past decades. There is an obvious need for reliable data from well dated archives such as polar snow and ice, peat bogs, and sediments. The air concentrations, extent of enrichment, particle size distribution, and rate of deposition of Sb in urban areas is cause for concern. The natural processes which controlled the Sb flux to the atmosphere in the pre-anthropogenic past are poorly understood. The cumulative amount of anthropogenic Sb in soils has not yet been quantified. The long-term fate of Sb in soils, including weathering and mobilization, has only started to be investigated. However, the limited data available suggests that, in some locations at least, anthropogenic Sb in soils may be more mobile than anthropogenic Pb. Further study of this problem is needed, as well as the chemical speciation of Sb in soil-water-plant-sediment systems, and the implications which this has for human and ecosystem health.