Talk:Bismuth

Notice
Article changed over to new WikiProject Elements format by maveric149. Elementbox converted 12:25, 10 July 2005 by Femto (previous revision was that of 21:13, 4 July 2005).

Re: Disputed
When it says "Among the heavy metals, it is the heaviest and the only non-toxic". I think it means the "heaviest AND ALSO non-toxic" of metals.

Gold is heavy but has an atomic number of 79 and Bismuth has an atomic number of 83, which means (again...) that bismuth is the heaviest of non-toxic metals.

Re: Re: Disputed
OK. Gold IS a toxic heavy metal. The only problem is it is hard to find and make compounds of gold that can be assimilated by the body.

The word 'heavy' in this context usually refers to the atomic number, not the density of the element. Elements like Seaborgium are referred to a 'Superheavy' It might be more meaningful to use the term 'heaviest nucleii', although polonium might be considered here as a metal which is heavier, but it it not stable so the radioactivity might kill someone before heavy metal poisoning does.

Tungsten is a heavy metal, but is also not toxic (at least not much). I don't know about the others. Most of the others are kind of rare so although they are heavy metal poisons it would be hard to encounter toxic compounds.

An NFPA 704 rating for Bismuth
Many other elements have an NFPA 704 rating on their articles. However, bismuth does not. I was able to find ratings here and here online. However, they contradict each other for the blue part of the NFPA 704 rating. Additionally, I am not completely sure that either source is reliable. Can anyone please help? InterstellarGamer12321 (talk) 18:49, 9 November 2022 (UTC)