This fact sheet is one in a series of summaries about hazardous substances and their health effects. This information is important because this substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed, personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are present. Breathing high levels of vanadium may cause lung irritation, chest pain, coughing, and other effects. This chemical has been found in at least 385 of 1,416 National Priorities List sites identified by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Pure vanadium has no smell.
It usually combines with other elements such as oxygen, sodium, sulfur, or chloride. Vanadium and vanadium compounds can be found in the earth's crust and in rocks, some iron ores, and crude petroleum deposits. Vanadium is mostly combined with other metals to make special metal mixtures called alloys. Vanadium in the form of vanadium oxide is a component in special kinds of steel that is used for automobile parts, springs, and ball bearings. Most of the vanadium used in the United States is used to make steel.