It is normally administered as the calcium or zinc salt (Ca or Zn-DTPA), since these ions are readily displaced by more highly charged cations and mainly to avoid to depleting them in the organism.

[6] In August, 2004 the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) determined zinc-DTPA and calcium-DTPA to be safe and effective for treatment of those who have breathed in or otherwise been contaminated internally by plutonium, americium, or curium.

The recommended treatment is for an initial dose of calcium-DTPA, as this salt of DTPA has been shown to be more effective in the first 24 hours after internal contamination by plutonium, americium, or curium.

By binding to Fe2+ ions DTPA prevents their precipitation as Fe(OH)3, or Fe2O3 · n H2O poorly soluble oxy-hydroxides after their oxidation by dissolved oxygen.

It is unclear to what extent does DTPA really contribute to protect dissolved Fe2+ against air oxidation and if the Fe(III)-DTPA complex cannot also be directly assimilated by aquatic plants simply because of its enhanced solubility.

An unexpected negative environmental impact of chelating agents, as DTPA, is their toxicity for the activated sludges in the treatment of Kraft pulping effluents.

[13] Most of the DTPA worldwide production (several thousands of tons)[3] is intended to avoid hydrogen peroxide decomposition by redox-active iron and manganese ions in the chlorine-free Kraft pulping processes (total chlorine free (TCF) and environmental chlorine free (ECF) processes).

Compounds that are structurally related to DTPA are used in medicine, taking advantage of the high affinity of the triaminopentacarboxylate scaffold for metal ions.