Discovered in 1790 by Adair Crawford and William Cruickshank due to its crimson flame test colour, strontium was given its name from the nearby Scottish village called Strontian. Sir Humphry Davy isolated the new element just under two decades later using the then-new process of electrolysis. Strontium is an alkaline earth metal and is highly reactive, meaning that it can burn in air. It shares chemical characteristics of calcium and barium and is mostly acquired through mining.
After strontium's discovery, its first main use was during the production of sugar. As time moved on and the production of cathode-ray tubes (CRT) for televisions rose, strontium was used for the frontplate glass. 75% of the strontium production in the US was used for this purpose but this significantly slowed as newer technology took over. Different isotopes of strontium can also be used to determine the source of old objects, and a compound of strontium called strontium carbonate can give a red colour to fireworks.
Natural strontium is not hazardous to health, this mostly being the isotope Sr-88. Sr-90, however, is harmful since it is radioactive. It is also very dangerous as nuclear fallout since the body absorbs strontium in a similar way to calcium.
Due to the two elements being very chemically similar, stable strontium does not pose a health risk and the human body takes on around 2 mg of strontium a day. Despite this, strontium can replace calcium in the bones of children and cause bone growth problems ‐ the same issue is not usually seen in adults.
Most forms of stable strontium are found in drinking water. This can come from rocks and soil as water runs over and through them. This is also how radioactive strontium can enter drinking water, as it normally settles as dust out of the air. These levels are typically only elevated near to hazardous waste sites or radioactive waste sites such as nuclear power stations undergoing decommissioning.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), EU and UK do not set legal upper limits on strontium, only the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set a limit of 1.5 ppm in drinking water in 2014.
Strontium in your drinking water can be detected by the following tests.
Strontium can be reduced or removed from your drinking water using the following methods.
