Cobalt poisoning is intoxication caused by excessive levels of cobalt in the body. Cobalt is an essential element for health in animals in minute amounts as a component of Vitamin B12. A deficiency of cobalt, which is very rare, is also potentially lethal, leading to pernicious anemia.Exposure to cobalt metal dust is most common in the fabrication of tungsten carbide. Another source is from wear and tear of certain metal-on-metal hip prostheses.Per the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), cobalt metal with tungsten carbide is "probably carcinogenic to humans" (IARC Group 2A Agent), whereas cobalt metal without tungsten carbide is "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (IARC Group 2B Agent). Cobalt salts
The LD50 value for soluble cobalt salts has been estimated to be between 150 and 500 mg/kg. Thus, for a 100 kg person the LD50 would be about 20 grams.Soluble cobalt(II) salts are "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (IARC Group 2B Agents). Beer drinkers cardiomyopathy
In August 1965, a person presented to a hospital in Quebec City with symptoms suggestive of alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Over the next eight months, fifty more cases with similar findings appeared in the same area with twenty of these being fatal. It was noted that all were heavy drinkers who mostly drank beer and preferred the Dow brand; thirty out of those drank more than 6 litres (12 pints) of beer per day.
Abnormalities of the chest: either pectus carinatum; a protruding sternum, or pectus excavatum; a sunken sternum form an immediately recognizable sign of fetal warfarin syndrome. Congenital heart defects such as a thinned atrial septum, coarctation of the aorta, patent ductus arteriosus; a connection between the pulmonary artery and aorta occur in 8% of fetal warfarin syndrome patients. Situs inversus totalis, the complete left-right mirroring of thoracic organs, has also been observed

CNS
Defects of the central nervous system can lead to profound intellectual disabilities. Fetal warfarin syndrome can lead to microcephaly; an abnormally small head, hydrocephaly; increased ventricle size and CSF volume, and agenesis of the corpus callosum. These defects contribute to the appearance of significant intellectual disability in 31% of fetal warfarin syndrome cases. Hypotonia, whole body muscle relaxation, can appear in newborns with severe nervous deficits. Atrophy of the optic nerve can also cause blindness in fetal warfarin syndrome. Physiological
Inhibition of coagulation and resultant internal bleeding can cause too few red blood cells to be present in the bloodstream and low blood pressure in newborns with fetal warfarin syndrome. Low hemoglobin levels can lead to partial oxygen starvation, a high level of lactic acid in the bloodstream, and acidosis. Prolonged oozing of fluid from the stump of the cut umbilical cord is common. Cause
Fetal warfarin syndrome appears in greater than 6% of children whose mothers took warfarin during pregnancy. Warfarin has a low molecular weight so can pass from the maternal to fetal bloodstream through the tight filter-like junctions of the placental barrier.