• Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    It is extremely heavy. I don't know if it's toxic or not, I never thought to ask. Lemme go look.

    Okay so quickly browsing some articles I came up with this - Tungesten does not seem to cause heavy metal poisoning the way uranium and lead do. Tungsten can cause airway irritation and, if you're exposed to a lot of it over a long time, serious lung problems. This is apparently because tungesten dust is ultra-hard and extremely sharp, so it lacerates lung tissue on a very small scale. I guess similar to what asbestos does but I'm not sure.

    So as far as I can tell it does have some risks, but they're different risks than other heavy metals and they require high level exposure over extended time periods.