Do Lurchers and Mistborn experience Iron Deficiency?

[TheShogun]

So Iron is necessary for your body to function properly--it's a major component of hemoglobin etc etc.

 

But if Lurchers and Mistborn are going around burning all of their iron (and most likely burning off metals before sleep, as Kelsier tells Vin to do), shouldn't they have huge health problems from not having any iron?

[A Joe in the Bush]

The Allomantic Metals use Certain Ratios, With Iron, You can Only Burn Pure Iron, So When you Eat, the Iron in your food wouldn't be Burnable because it's compounded with Carbon, Fiber, and all the Food Stuff. And When the Iron Enters Your BloodStream, It's no Longer Burnable, the Metal Has to be in the Stomach (I think, Can anyone Confirm that?) Kelsier mentions that you have to burn it all before you go to sleep, or it will enter your Digestive Systems, and then it's not Burnable.

 

Although Kel does mention that Vin got Trace Metals from the Water, that's not really Compounded, but Mixed, Aqueous Solutions. Which is Why they always drink the Metal, rather than Sprinkling it over Steak or bread.

[WeiryWriter]

Allomancers can only burn Iron that is pure, or reasonably pure (though they will get sick).  They can't burn iron that is part of a chemical compound, such as hemoglobin.  There is a difference between elemental iron and the "bioinorganic" iron used in the body.  Most of the iron we use is from stuff like red meat/fish/beans, and most iron supplements are iron compounds.  Some are pure elemental iron but that isn't particularly common since the human body doesn't absorb it as well.

[Shardlet]

On top of which, the iron in your body is in ionic form not metallic.  Note that iron suppliments are iron sulfate.  When you get iron in your food, it is also in ionic form (barring unusual circumstances).  Regardless, stomach acid (HCl) can oxidize the iron in both metallic iron and steel (putting it in ionic form).  So, lurchers and coinshots should have an abundance of iron needed for their biology since some of the iron and steel the consume for their allomancy would be leached by their stomch acid.

[el_warko]

By that rationale though, the metals in water should be inert/unburnable as they would be present as ions unless Brandon did the math (who am I kidding, he most likely did the math) and the redox gradient in the stomach is such that the ions are reduced to their native metals for absorption. But I find that hard to believe because as a general rule acidic aqueaous conditions tend towards metal dissolution.  Unless, the conditions in an Allomencers stomach are basic or such due to the snap. Therefore, I think that that might have been "overlooked" as a plot device.

 

Furthermore the eating them should work that was essentilly what spook was doing stuffing handfuls of tin in his mouth and washing it down with water (also breeze and vin/kelsier at various stages of series).  The metals were generally suspended in alcohol, this would be to prevent leaching (the dissolution of metal by a lixiviant (water mixed with various analytes i.e. cyanide or aqua regia for gold, acid sulfiudes for other metals in general)).  This would be especially prevalent as the ash form the ashmounts would have had an impact.

 

Chemical/Metallurgical rant complete.

[king of nowhere]

By that rationale though, the metals in water should be inert/unburnable as they would be present as ions unless Brandon did the math (who am I kidding, he most likely did the math) and the redox gradient in the stomach is such that the ions are reduced to their native metals for absorption. But I find that hard to believe because as a general rule acidic aqueaous conditions tend towards metal dissolution.  Unless, the conditions in an Allomencers stomach are basic or such due to the snap. Therefore, I think that that might have been "overlooked" as a plot device.

 

Furthermore the eating them should work that was essentilly what spook was doing stuffing handfuls of tin in his mouth and washing it down with water (also breeze and vin/kelsier at various stages of series).  The metals were generally suspended in alcohol, this would be to prevent leaching (the dissolution of metal by a lixiviant (water mixed with various analytes i.e. cyanide or aqua regia for gold, acid sulfiudes for other metals in general)).  This would be especially prevalent as the ash form the ashmounts would have had an impact.

 

Chemical/Metallurgical rant complete.

nothing so complicated. simply, some scraps of metal would be eroded by the mechanical action of water, and they would stay in water as metallic metals (oxidation state 0). with time they would be oxidized, but most metals oxidize very slowly in neutral water.

[el_warko]

I'd agree if you had pure water, (and yes you a right, the speed of oxidation would be relatively slow).  My point though not elegantly put was that but with the copious amounts of ash present you'd have to assume a certain level dissolution of the ash which would likley promotel oxidation.  If you assume that the ashmounts are related to (but not actually) volcano's then there would be a high degree of 1) acidity associated with the nearby water supplies and likely a high sulfate content in the water.  Consequently, alcohol solutions would be the prime mechanism for storing metals for allomancy due to the further decreased rate of oxidation.