Toxic Elements With No Nutritional Value

Do You Know Which Elements Are Toxic?

Beryllium has a sweet taste, yet it is highly poisonous.
Beryllium has a sweet taste, yet it is highly poisonous. Deglr6328, wikipedia.org
by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.
Updated March 08, 2017

Have you ever wondered which elements are toxic? Everything is toxic if the dose is high enough, so I've compiled a short list of elements that have no nutritional value, even in trace amounts. Some of these elements accumulate in the body, so there is no truly safe exposure limit for those elements (e.g., lead, mercury). Barium and aluminum are examples of elements which can be excreted, at least to a certain extent.

Most of these elements are metals. The man-made elements are radioactive and toxic whether they are metals or not.

  • Aluminum
  • Antimony
  • Arsenic (metalloid)
  • Barium
  • Beryllium
  • Cadmium
  • Hexavalent Chromium Cr6+ (Cr3+ is necessary in trace amounts for proper nutrition)
  • Lead
  • Mercury
  • Osmium
  • Thallium
  • Vanadium

    radioactive metals
     
  • Polonium (metalloid)
  • Thorium
  • Radium
  • Uranium
  • Transuranium elements (e.g., polonium, americium)
  • Radioactive isotopes of metals that might not otherwise be highly toxic (e.g., cobalt-60, strontium-90)
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Your Citation
Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "Toxic Elements With No Nutritional Value." ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2016, thoughtco.com/toxic-elements-with-no-nutritional-value-609283. Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. (2016, February 16). Toxic Elements With No Nutritional Value. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/toxic-elements-with-no-nutritional-value-609283 Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "Toxic Elements With No Nutritional Value." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/toxic-elements-with-no-nutritional-value-609283 (accessed May 26, 2018).