It is used in combination with lime and water as a protective fungicide, referred to as Bordeaux mixture, for leaf application and seed treatment. It is also used as an algaecide, an herbicide in irrigation and municipal water treatment systems, and as a molluscicide, a material used to repel and kill slugs and snails. Ingestion of copper sulfate is often not toxic because vomiting is automatically triggered by its irritating effect on the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms are severe, however, if copper sulfate is retained in the stomach, as in the unconscious victim. Some of the signs of poisoning which occurred after 1-12 grams of copper sulfate was swallowed include a metallic taste in the mouth, burning pain in the chest and abdomen, intense nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, sweating, shock, discontinued urination leading to yellowing of the skin.
Copper sulfate can be corrosive to the skin and eyes.
It is readily absorbed through the skin and can produce a burning pain, along with the same severe symptoms of poisoning from ingestion. Reproductive Effects Developing embryos were resorbed in pregnant hamsters given copper salts intravenously on the eighth day of gestation. Testicular atrophy increased in birds as they were fed larger amounts of copper sulfate. It is stored primarily in the liver, brain, heart, kidney and muscles. About one-third of all the copper in the body is contained in the liver and brain.