The Element Vanadium and its Uses Vanadium was discovered by Andrés Manuel del Rio, a Mexican chemist, in 1801. Rio sent samples of vanadium ore and a letter describing his methods to the Institute de France in Paris, France, for analysis and confirmation. Unfortunately for Rio, his letter was lost in a shipwreck and the Institute only received his samples, which contained a brief note describing how much this new element, which Rio had named erythronium, resembled chromium. Rio withdrew his claim when he received a letter from Paris disputing his discovery. Vanadium was rediscovered by Nils Gabriel Sefstrôm, a Swedish chemist, in 1830 while analyzing samples of iron from a mine in Sweden. Vanadium was isolated by Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, an English chemist, in 1867 by combining vanadium trichloride (VCl3) withhydrogen gas (H2). Today, vanadium is …show more content…
In mussels, crabs and tunicates vanadium strongly bioaccumulates which can lead to concentrations of about 105 to 106 times greater than the concentrations found in seawater. Vanadium causes the inhibition of certain enzymes with animals which has several neurological effects. Next to neurological effects, vanadium can cause breathing disorders, paralyses and negative effects on the liver and kidneys. Vanadium compounds are not regarded as serious hazard, however, workers exposed to vanadium peroxide dust were found to suffer severe eye, nose and throat irritation. The uptake of vanadium by humans mainly takes place through foodstuffs, such as buckwheat, soya beans, olive oil, sunflower oil, apples and eggs. Vanadium can have a number of effects on human health, when the uptake is too high. When vanadium uptake takes places through air it can cause bronchitis and pneumonia. The acute effects of vanadium are irritation of lungs, throat, eyes and nasal