I'd Like To Know Why The Minerals Are Hazardous!

I'd like to know why the minerals are hazardous!

YES I got someone to bite!

Okay, so, the two specific minerals I have in my collection that are hazardous are hazardous for different reasons.

First off, chromite.

I'd Like To Know Why The Minerals Are Hazardous!

Reason it is potentially hazardous: On its own, chromite isn’t necessarily dangerous.  It becomes dangerous when exposed to certain environmental conditions.  Under certain conditions, the chromium present in chromite changes from Cr(III) (trivalent chromium) to Cr(VI) (hexavalent chromium).  Hexavalent chromium is a known toxin and carcinogen.

Reason I still have it in my collection: You need very specific circumstances to transform the Cr(III) in chromite to Cr(VI).  Generally, those circumstances occur when chromite ore is being processed to produce chromium.  All my chromite does is chill in a jar all day.  There’s very little likelihood that my chromite has oxidized to form hexavalent chromium.

(Not to mention, despite some vigorous Google searching, I couldn’t find anything about chromite being hazardous, just that mining and processing it is hazardous, neither of which I am doing.)

My second mineral in the “Danger Jar” is uraninite, aka pitchblende.

I'd Like To Know Why The Minerals Are Hazardous!

Reason it is potentially hazardous: It’s a uranium ore, which makes it weakly radioactive.  Marie Curie (one of my role models) famously died as a result of exposure to radiation from pitchblende.

Reason I still have it in my collection: Marie Curie processed literal tons of pitchblende during her research.  I have a small specimen the size of my thumb.  Also, while it is radioactive, its form of radioactivity (alpha decay) makes the main concern internal exposure (breathing in particles, ingesting it), rather than external exposure (just being in close proximity to it).  Basically, it doesn’t give off much radiation anyways, and what little it does isn’t as hazardous as you might think.

(Not to mention, it was actually part of one of those mineral collection kits that you can like, just buy online or in a store.  Pretty sure that if it was seriously dangerous to my health, it wouldn’t be available for easy purchase.  Also, at undergrad I literally sat next to a cabinet that set off a Geiger counter because it had so much pitchblende in it, but the professors weren’t concerned at all.)

HOWEVER

Out of an abundance of caution, I keep my chromite and my pitchblende in a sealed container (as of this morning, a nice glass jar that used to house a Bath and Bodyworks candle) and store said jar not in my bedroom.  I’m 100% sure that my samples aren’t actually dangerous for me to have, but I like to take precautions anyways.  Blame my microbiology and chemistry background for that.

Bonus: I mentioned a few other minerals in the tags of my post about my Danger Jar.  Namely, cinnabar and orpiment.

Cinnabar is a beautiful red mineral that is also incredibly toxic because it’s mercury sulfide.

I'd Like To Know Why The Minerals Are Hazardous!

Orpiment is a beautiful orange-yellow mineral that is also incredibly toxic because it’s arsenic sulfide.

I'd Like To Know Why The Minerals Are Hazardous!

There are actually two other arsenic sulfide minerals that I would also like for my collection, in addition to orpiment.

Realgar

I'd Like To Know Why The Minerals Are Hazardous!

Arsenopyrite

I'd Like To Know Why The Minerals Are Hazardous!

All of these I have handled in mineralogy (I think...I can’t remember if I handled cinnabar or not).  And all the professor said was “Wash your hands before you eat, because these have mercury and arsenic in them.”

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While I'm also fond of a lot of what G.K. Chesterton wrote, I'm a little surprised and disappointed by the fact that in your many mentions of and tributes to him you have not drawn attention to his frequently reactionary and frankly antisemitic views, nor the influence he had on his nephew A.K. Chesterton - who would grow up to be a member of the BUF and later co-found the National Front. I know many members of your family were murdered in the holocaust, and while I don't think his writing should be dismissed entirely by any means, I do find it odd that you've been such a champion of his without any caveat. Perhaps you expect readers to work out his views themselves, which is an understandable though optimistic view of people. I write this not as admonishment but out of genuine curiosity.

Also, when's the leather jacket coming back?

And I, for my part, am not actually surprised and disappointed that in your obviously extensive readings of what I've said and written about Chesterton you've somehow missed the bits where I talked and wrote about both his antisemitism and his racism, because the world is big and nobody can be expected to read everything or even Google to keep up. But I've talked and written about it -- for example, here on Tumblr in this very blog. Chesterton was a big person and he contained multitudes: that doesn't mean that he gets a Free Pass for the small-minded and disappointing and sometimes creepy bits of the writing, but it means that I'm more interested in the bits where he was better than that.

The leather jacket will come back when my hair is either white or mostly gone and when I look like an old guy who doesn't care what people think and is wearing his leather jacket because he loves it, and not like a gentleman in late middle age wearing a leather jacket because he misguidedly thinks it might make him look younger.

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