# Mercury is LETHAL asshole! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 2, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891 "2003-04-02T04:37:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/41 "2003-04-02T18:35:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Finagle \* > \*\*Well, “lethal” is overstating it. Mercury is a toxic heavy metal, but it’s not going to kill you instantly if you touch it. Most kids of my generation played with mercury at one time or another. I got a couple of globs from my dentist at one point and rolled them around on my palm. And yet somehow have muddled along for another 30 years without significant neurological damage. > > This doesn’t mean that you weren’t wise to return the mercury, though. \*\* Exactly, mercury does “evaporate” after a fashion, but unless the guy was in a small airtight container with it for an extended period of time, it’s not insta-death just to touch or play with it. To do that you’d have to have some route of entry more accessible than just your pores, such as an open wound or drinking the stuff etc. It would have to be ingested or absorbed over a period of time (not sure how long that period would have to be as I’m in the “classify, characterize and dispose properly” end of things, but if you’re interested [www.epa.gov](http://www.epa.gov) has info on TCLP metals their LDLs, etc and all the info on death by mercury you’d want). But, I agree, it’s not a toy and good for you for returning it to it’s rightful place! ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/42 "2003-04-02T18:41:37Z")
[my experience with mercury](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73678) ---
**Author:** ![DaToad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@DaToad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaToad)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/43 "2003-04-02T20:32:35Z")
**Soup\_du\_jour** , I glad that I’m not the only boneheaded kid that ever did that. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/44 "2003-04-02T22:21:08Z")
I may be misremembering, but I think the problem with mercury is the potential for some truly horrid birth defects if a pregnant mother is exposed to it in the first few weeks of pregnancy. Since this is before a person knows they are pregnant, and since pregnancy isn’t exactly unheard of in a high school, I think the OP did the right thing. ---
**Author:** ![krisolov](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krisolov/32/3724_2.png) [@krisolov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krisolov)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/45 "2003-04-02T22:42:02Z")
when I was in HS about 20 years ago a kid appareently committed suicide by ingesting a large quantity of mercury he had stolen from the chem lab. Just what would that do to a person? Could this just be a story?? ---
**Author:** ![krisolov](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krisolov/32/3724_2.png) [@krisolov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krisolov)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/46 "2003-04-02T23:16:24Z")
when I was in HS about 20 years ago a kid appareently committed suicide by ingesting a large quantity of mercury he had stolen from the chem lab. Just what would that do to a person? Could this just be a story?? ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/47 "2003-04-02T23:19:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor \* > \*\*No. People used to believe that Mercury could cure various STDs, but it ain’t so. \*\* Do you have a cite for this? Everything I’ve found on the net indicates that mercury compounds were the specifics for syphilis from the 1500’s until the early 1900’s (when arsenic compounds started being used!). It wasn’t a particularly fast or effective treatment but it was all they had. ---
**Author:** ![BickByro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@BickByro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BickByro)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/48 "2003-04-02T23:21:08Z")
**Homebrew** : > [@](#): > > Some immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean make a religious or good-luck totem by mixing mercury with mop water… WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Rhum\_Runner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rhum\_Runner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhum_Runner)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/49 "2003-04-03T00:02:08Z")
I was under the impression that Mercury, is ingested, tended to, ehm, _run_ through the digestive tract rather quickly and uncontrolably, with no side effects. Can anyone confirm? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/50 "2003-04-03T01:28:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rhum Runner \* > \*\*I was under the impression that Mercury, is ingested, tended to, ehm, _run_ through the digestive tract rather quickly and uncontrolably, with no side effects. Can anyone confirm? \*\* I’ve heard the same story. I was told by a friend that a common prank his dad pulled when he was serving in the Navy was to put some mecury in a glass of milk. Reason being that when someone swigged the milk back rapidly, they’d swallow the mercury and get to experience what fans of olestra call “anal leakage.” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/51 "2003-04-03T02:40:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Finagle \* > \*\*Do you have a cite for this? Everything I’ve found on the net indicates that mercury compounds were the specifics for syphilis from the 1500’s until the early 1900’s (when arsenic compounds started being used!). > > It wasn’t a particularly fast or effective treatment but it was all they had. \*\* I was kinda under the impression that the mercury “cure” would kill you or drive you insane, at which point syphilis became the least of your problems. Oh, well… ---
**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891/52 "2003-04-03T02:44:52Z")
Mercury is about as lethal as a roll of tinfoil, and a hell of a lot more fun. It’s prolonged exposure to the vapor that you have to worry about, or some mercury salts (which’ll kill you D-E-D dead with just a tiny exposure). ::continuing to beat my head into the desk in an effort to forget just how freaking paranoid people are about ‘dangerous chemicals’:: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-is-lethal-asshole/165891.md?page=2)