Tellurium and health. Tellurium Tellurium is a chemical element with symbol Te and atomic number 52. It is a brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid. Tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur. It is occasionally found in native form as elemental crystals. Tellurium is far more common in the universe as a whole than on Earth. Its extreme rarity in the Earth's crust, comparable to that of platinum, is due partly to its high atomic number, but also to its formation of a volatile hydride which caused it to be lost to space as a gas during the hot nebular
Period 5 element diverse functions of the remainder of the enzymes, molybdenum is a required element for life in higher organisms (eukaryotes), though not in all bacteria. Technetium, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, tin, and antimony have no biological role. Although cadmium has no known biological role in higher organisms, a cadmium-dependent carbonic anhydrase has been found in marine diatoms. Indium has no biological role and can be toxic as well as Antimony. Tellurium has no biological role, although fungi can incorporate it in place of sulfur and selenium into amino acids such as tellurocysteine and telluromethionine. In humans, tellurium is partly metabolized into