What Is Tin?

USGS reports that tin has not been mined or smelted in the United States since 1993 and 1989, respectively, and that US uses of tin were chemicals at 25%, tinplate at 16%, alloys at 12% and solder at 11%, among others. ATSDR says tin is present in brass, bronze, pewter and some soldering materials, and that tin metal is used to line cans for food, beverages and aerosols.

ATSDR says inorganic tin compounds, formed when tin combines with chemicals like chlorine, sulfur or oxygen, are used in toothpaste, perfumes, soaps, food additives and dyes, while organotin compounds such as dibutyltin, tributyltin and triphenyltin, formed when tin combines with carbon, are used to make plastics, food packages, plastic pipes, pesticides, paints and pest repellents. It says swallowing large amounts of inorganic tin compounds may cause stomachache, anemia and liver and kidney problems, and that people exposed for a short time to some organic tin compounds have had skin and eye irritation and neurological problems, with exposure to very high amounts possibly lethal.

Organotin paints are restricted. The Organotin Antifouling Paint Control Act, Public Law 100-333 of June 16, 1988, was enacted to prohibit the use of certain antifouling paints containing organotin and the use of organotin compounds purchased at retail to make such paints. A 2008 US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report explains that the international anti-fouling convention prohibits anti-fouling systems on ship hulls that contain organotin compounds acting as biocides, unless the compounds have been sealed so that no leaching occurs.