In a specific region, comprehensive studies have been conducted on all possible metals; tellurium has never been mentioned or investigated in these analyses. This omission could be due to specific reasons, such as its rarity or limited environmental relevance, or it may simply reflect a standard procedure to extrapolate data from similar metals, such as manganese, rather than studying tellurium independently.?
One reason may be that U.S. EPA does not routinely analyze for tellurium in its various program offices (Superfund, water, etc). See: https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2019-05/documents/sfam01.0_exhibits_d_-_inorganic_methods_5_2019_508.pdf
as an example list of metals looked for.
When I reflect on this issue I can say that the first response I would offer relates to structural scarcity. It's also possible that identifying it may require sensitive analyses and could prove to be a costly endeavor.
Ümit Remzi Ergün, I appreciate your response and completely agree with the scarcity of this type of element in the samples.
However, I observed that industrial effluent could contain "Te," but no recent environmental study has even searched for its presence or discussed it.
Meisam Feizi Congratulations on your choice of topic and the issues you have identified.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10812-007-0134-4, https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.14390, https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/123/1/012027
Especially the study at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34471-9_26 refers to it as a “forgotten element,” which is quite interesting.
Recently, the literature has started to show a growing interest in this topic, for example: Handbook of Chalcogen Chemistry: New Perspectives in Sulfur, Selenium and ..., edited by Francesco A. Devillanova.
Perhaps a meta-analysis, systematic review, or bibliographic study that invites organizations like the EPA or WHO to focus on this issue could attract attention.
Tellurium is a relatively rare metalloid with limited industrial dispersion compared to lead, mercury, or cadmium, and analytical detection has historically been costly and specialized; its environmental behavior is less studied due to low concentrations, lower regulatory priority, and scarcity of baseline geochemical data.
Chuck A Arize thank you and agree with you/ but when China or USA have no financial concerns like middle east, did not worked any report on this, as for the concentrations, in battery and fuel cell productions are potentially sources which is widespread in China/ I also found some environmental field with high relation to metabolism of TE.
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