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Cobalt poisoning is intoxication caused by excessive levels of cobalt in the body. Cobalt is an essential element for health in animals in minute amounts as a component of vitamin B 12 . A deficiency of cobalt, which is very rare, is also potentially lethal, leading to pernicious anemia .
The Mutanda Mine (French: Mine de Mutanda) is an open-pit copper and cobalt mine in the Lualaba Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is the largest cobalt mine in the world. Accidents and spills at the mine have killed workers and polluted nearby rivers and fields.
Around 75 per cent of the world’s cobalt is mined in the DRC -- and the world cannot get enough of it. The rare, silvery metal is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery ...
Elements often discussed as toxic include cadmium, mercury and lead, [6] all of which appear in the World Health Organization's list of 10 chemicals of major public concern. [7] Other examples include chromium and nickel, [8] thallium, bismuth, arsenic, antimony and tin. [4] These toxic elements are found naturally in the earth.
[15] This also applies to blood, as the concentrations of cobalt in blood were higher in exposed adults, children and miners. [15] For cobalt, which also gets spread through humans, effects include damage to the heart and being toxic for the thyroid. Cobalt can also cause allergic dermatitis, asthma, and hard-metal lung disease. [16]
Roughly 60% of the world's cobalt is mined in the Congo, much of it using child labour in very poor working conditions. Major companies that require this mineral for their batteries were searching for ethically-sourced product. [25] The shortage of such cobalt is a primary reason for the 300% increase in the price of this commodity since 2015. [26]
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[73] [74] The impact on the world cobalt economy from this conflict was smaller than expected: cobalt is a rare metal, the pigment is highly toxic, and the industry had already established effective ways for recycling cobalt materials. In some cases, industry was able to change to cobalt-free alternatives.