The Element Lanthanum

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Introduction Lanthanum (La) is a member of the rare earth elements (REEs), which consist of a group of 15 trivalent metallic elements with similar properties. Lanthanum is mostly dangerous in the working environment, due to the fact that damps and gasses can be inhaled with air. This can cause lung embolism, especially during long-term exposure. Lanthanum can also cause cancer with humans, as it enlarges the chances of lung cancer when it is inhaled. Finally, it can be a threat to the liver when it accumulates in the human body. Lanthanum is dumped in the environment in many different places, mainly by petrol-producing industries. It can also enter the environment when household equipment is thrown away. Lanthanum will gradually accumulate in soils and water soils and this will eventually lead to increasing concentrations in humans, animals and soil particles. With water animals lanthanum causes damage to cell membranes, which has several negative influences on reproduction and on the functions of the nervous system. It strongly accumulates in mussels. Lanthanum oxide and other rare earth oxides are used in making of the optical glasses, in the preparation of glass fibers for optical purposes, in gasoline-cracking catalysts, polishing compounds, carbon arcs, and in the iron and steel industries to remove sulfur, carbon, and other electronegative elements from iron and steel (Ganjali et al. 2006). Lanthanum ions accelerate hydrolysis of phosphate ester binding by 13 orders of magnitude. This suggests that phosphate di ester in DNA may also suffer such destruction. Thus, lanthanum should be situated among the class of highly toxic metal ions that are potentially effective against micro and higher organisms. Lanthanum chloride manifests as antitumor. Genotoxicity of lanthanum (III) in human peripheral blood lymphocytes has also been reported. Lanthanum chloride caused changes in lipid peroxidation, the redox system, and ATPase activities in plasma membranes of rice seeding roots (Haiduc and Silvestru 1990; Yongxing, Xiaorong, and Zichun 2000). La detection has become necessary lately, because of the increasing utilization of lanthanum compounds in industry. Several analytical methods have been reported for low-level monitoring of La(III) ions in various sample matrices. These methods include X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (Wu et al. 2010), High Sensitive Sensor Based on Carbon Nanotube Electrode (Ghoreishi et al. 2013), Ultrasound-Assisted Emulsification-Microextraction (USAEME) Followed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometr (ICP-OES), (Sereshti, Far, and Samadi 2012) inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (Agrawal and Shrivastav 1997; Liang, Liu, and Guo 2005), Combining high temperature electrochemistry and time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (Rohnke et al.

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