ABSTRACT
Antimony is a potentially toxic trace element whose environmental significance clearly outweighs the attention it has received to date. Potassium antimony tartrate was found to be an inhibitor of gluthathione-S-transferase (GST) from human erythrocytes, whereas sodium stibogluconate had no effect on GST. There is evidence that in mammal’s antimony, unlike arsenic, is not detoxified via methylation, but it remains unclear what mechanism is responsible for antimony’s genotoxicity. Mozart, for example, may have been accidentally poisoned with Sb: he had been prescribed with antimony tartrate, and the symptoms of his death were identical to those of Sb poisoning. Antimony contamination of soils impacted by lead smelters has been reported by several investigators. 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.
