How can tin and tin compounds enter and leave my body?
Tin can enter your body when you eat contaminated food or drink contaminated water, when you touch or eat soil that has tin in it, or when you breathe tin-containing fumes or dusts. Tin compounds can enter your body from nearby hazardous waste sites by exposure to contaminated air, water, and soil. When you eat tin in your food, very little leaves the gastrointestinal tract and gets into your bloodstream. Most tin travels through the intestines and leaves your body in the feces. Some leaves your body in the urine. If you breathe air containing tin dust or fumes, some of the tin could be trapped in your lungs, but this does not affect your breathing if it is a small amount. If you swallow some metallic tin particles, they will leave your body in the feces. Very little tin can enter the body through unbroken skin. Your body can rid itself of most inorganic tin in weeks, but some can stay in your body for 2-3 months. Inorganic tin compounds leave your body very quickly; most are gone with
