# Can you get mercury poisoning from drinking clean water you put mercury in? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 22, 2018, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325 "2018-02-22T05:58:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Barack\_Obama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@Barack\_Obama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barack_Obama)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/1 "2018-02-22T05:58:30Z")
So IIRC mercury doesn’t dissolve it just sinks to the bottom (of water). My question is, does that mercury being put into the water spread any particles throughout the water that would contaminate the actual water? I’m asking this because I had this thought when reading a troll youtube comment about pouring mercury down the drain. Wouldn’t the mercury just sink somewhere and stay together so it can easily be removed? But then I thought, does mercury actually contaminate the water or do you have to physically consume the mercury to get poisoned? ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/2 "2018-02-22T06:38:52Z")
Short answer: what you’ve got is elemental mercury and you could drink it straight (don’t) and you’d probably be fine unless you drank so much it clogged up something vital. You just wouldn’t want to vaporize and breathe it. Now, leave that mercury out somewhere in the dirt or water where microbes can convert it to organic methylmercury, then it would be dangerous. > **[Mercury Toxicity: Background, Etiology, Epidemiology](https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1175560-overview#a3)** > > Mercury in any form is poisonous, with mercury toxicity most commonly affecting the neurologic, gastrointestinal (GI) and renal organ systems. Poisoning can result from mercury vapor inhalation, mercury ingestion, mercury injection, and absorption of... ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/3 "2018-02-22T14:09:52Z")
> [@Barack\_Obama](#): > > I’m asking this because I had this thought when reading a troll youtube comment about pouring mercury down the drain. Wouldn’t the mercury just sink somewhere and stay together so it can easily be removed? If you pour mercury down a sink drain, it will get stuck in the P-trap and stay there indefinitely. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/4 "2018-02-22T14:18:15Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > If you pour mercury down a sink drain, it will get stuck in the P-trap and stay there indefinitely. If you run hot water, wouldn’t that make it rise? :flees: ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/5 "2018-02-22T14:26:51Z")
You would get some trace contamination, but only very little. It’s not something I’d want to do for a lifetime, but it won’t hurt you to do it once. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/6 "2018-02-22T14:41:21Z")
Hospitals no longer use mercury thermometers because they used to get dropped and broken; the mercury would roll into a corner and gradually vaporise. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/7 "2018-02-22T14:43:26Z")
I have a glass jar containing around an inch of mercury that I’ve had for around 25 years. Over that period, it has formed a grey film that floats on the surface and stains the sides of the bottle. I assume that it is an oxide. Don’t know if it is water-soluble, but if so, I could imagine an immersed glob of mercury very slowly oxidizing away into the water. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/8 "2018-02-22T14:54:53Z")
From the WHO document “Mercury in Drinking-water” {PDF}: Mercury itself is insoluble in water … however some bacteria can methylate it into monomethylmercury … which is then taken up by fish and concentrated in the fish’s flesh … thus fish is the main source of mercury poisoning … > [@](#): > > Methylation of inorganic mercury is an important process in water and occurs in both fresh water and seawater (IPCS, 1989). Bacteria (_Pseudomonas_ spp.) isolated from mucous material on the surface of fish and soil were able to methylate mercury under aerobic conditions. Some anaerobic bacteria that possess methane synthetase are also capable of mercury methylation (Wood & Wang, 1983). Once methylmercury1 is released from microbes, it enters the food-chain as a consequence of rapid diffusion and tight binding to proteins in aquatic biota. The enzymology of CH3Hg+ hydrolysis and mercury(II) ion reduction is now understood in some detail. Environmental levels of methylmercury depend on the balance between bacterial methylation and demethylation (IPCS, 1990). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/9 "2018-02-22T15:27:19Z")
Good thing there’s no bacteria in our digestive systems. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/10 "2018-02-22T15:28:23Z")
Elemental mercury is insoluble, so it will basically go in one end and out the other. In fact, mercury was used as a laxative in olden days, although this is now not recommended. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/11 "2018-02-22T16:40:09Z")
Yes, we have bacteria in our digestive systems, but are the same kind of bacteria as the ones that methylate mercury? A lot of people think that all bacteria are equivalent, but there’s a lot more diversity among bacteria than among all eucaryotes (plants, animals, fungi, and protozoans) combined. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-mercury-poisoning-from-drinking-clean-water-you-put-mercury-in/809325/12 "2018-02-22T19:22:52Z")
Possibly related thread about drinking mercury: > **[If I Were To Drink A Glass Of Mercury, Would It Squirt Out Of My Anus?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=318368)** > > Note: This is purely a hypothetical question, and should not be construed as a solicitation for anyone to drink, touch, breathe, or handle mercury in an attempt to answer this question. Please DO NOT consume mercury. If you’ve ever poured mercury...