In this thread, and many others, we have discussed the toxicity of mercury, and the inherent dangers in handling it.
Well, I’ve known it to be poisonous for a long time. Problem is, not long enough. When I was in 7th grade, I swiped a bottle of mercury from chemistry class, and played with it. (Weeee! Look at this stuff rolling off my hands!)
So, the question is, just HOW toxic is it? I’m 26 now- what’s my prognosis? Am I doomed? Is there any way to test for ill-effects caused by mercury?
I did the same thing, on a few occasions when I was young and stupider… I’m 35 now, and as far as I know suffering no physical effects from this… (AS FAR AS I KNOW! For all I know, a mercury-induced tumor may be slowly enveloping my liver as I speak!).
YMMV, however if you did this only once or twice, I’d say you are reasonably safe… (if I’m wrong, someone with more knowledge than I will be along shortly to tell me and you!:D)…
I honestly doubt it.Pure mercury metal is very unreactive,and is not easily absorbed through unbroken skin.The mercury compounds are more dangerous,again some more than others.Some mercury compounds are used to disinfect wounds and the exposure in ppm there is probably much more.Yes,mercury is a poison and I don’t dispute that but there is still too much hype about it.
H.S chem students handle all sorts of poisons with no ill effects as long as the ‘accidents’ are minor and isolated,which it probably is in your case.Inhaling vapours from heated mercury is dangerous.Hope you didn’t do that.
Thanks for stepping up, astro and adithya, now, unless someone else comes in here and says otherwise, I can put a stop to these psychosomatic symptoms.
No, I didn’t heat the mercury or anything, I basically just showed everyone how cool it looked, forming little spheres on its own and all.
I researched this issue a little bit after Mrs. Lucwarm dropped a mercury fever thermometer.
In its pure form (shiny metallic liquid), mercury is surprisingly harmless for such a toxic chemical. The main danger (from pure mercury) lies in inhaling mercury vapors. Thus, handling large amounts of pure mercury in an enclosed space can be dangerous, especially if the mercury is heated up.
On the other hand, mercury salts, such as methyl mercury, are incredibly dangerous. From what I understand, a drop on your skin will kill you.
From your description, and the fact that you’re still alive, I think that you were playing with the pure stuff. I’m not a doctor, but my guess is that you’re prolly ok.
Keep in mind that most people are exposed to small (but measurable) exposure to mercury from eating tunafish, and having “silver” dental fillings.
Mercury MSDS, with all sorts of information about effects and exposure limits and whatnot.
Keep in mind, though, that the MSDSs make ethanol sound like it’ll kill you if you spill it on your hand, so take it with a really large grain of salt.
I relay this story in hopes that I am not continuing to spread an urban legend, and because I actually read it first hand in the local newspaper.
Seems a while ago some local high school kids decided it would be funny to grab some mercury and place some in the finger holes of bowling balls in the local bowling alley. The results, besides the strict punishment the kids got, was that one elderly man became very sick (I don’t know the outcome of him, as I don’t recall seeing a follow up on the story). If that is a result of him touching it, or breathing it or putting his finger up his nose after hitting a strike I have no idea. I imagine it got on the fingers of several bowlers during the time it was present, but I didn’t hear of any other victims.
Well Smoke, I did approximately the same thing when I was in High school. I just had my 35th class reunion so you’ve only got 27 years to go. Oh wait I’m not quite dead yet…
I don’t know the specifics of this case, but old people become sick all the time. In a case where kids put mercury in a bowling ball (why a bowling ball?), and an old man who touched it became sick for unrelated reasons, I would expect the natural reaction would be to blame the mercury. This is the Gulf War Syndrome effect.
In a case where kids put mercury in a bowling ball (why a bowling ball?), and an old man who touched it became sick for unrelated reasons, I would expect the natural reaction would be to blame the mercury. This is the Gulf War Syndrome effect. **
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I guess I can’t answer the reason why without being one of the kids, but I would imagine that a bowling ball is readily accessible to kids (a place those under 21 tend to hang out when there is little else to do), and I can’t think of too many places a person is likely to place their finger without being able to see what is inside first. Plus if you place something in those holes, you can pretty much count on someone coming in contact with it. Not too many other ways to use a bowling ball without placing your fingers in the holes. As far as the old man getting sick, I already stated that it could or could not be related to the contact with mercury. I am sure it wasn’t a healthy thing to have touched the mercury and then unknowingly touch your own eyes, or mouth or anything like that. Of course if you have an elderly man that is healthy enough to be bowling one day, and soon after contact with a known poisonous substance becomes ill, it would be ridiculous to dismiss the connection.
Yea, I broke a lab thermometer in college chem lab once, and felt the TA was vastly overreacting when he evacuated the entire lab.
The real irony was that tiny little millimeter-diameter blobs of mercury were scattered about the room. And mine was certainly not the first thermometer broken in that lab. There had to have been mercury in all of the cracks and crevices of that room.
And another irony was that nobody expressed any concern whatsoever when I pointed out the fact that the waste chemical container was extremely hot to the touch and audibly boiling.
Heck, more than once in high school, the teacher let us play with blobs of metallic mercury using our bare hands. (He did inspect them for cuts, though, before he’d give us any.) But he also warned us not to get it near other chemicals, or heat. And he described in excruciating detail the symptoms of fatal mercury poisoning: bloody diarrhea, cramps, vomiting of blood, kidney failure, peeing blood, etc. He may have been exaggerating, but it served a purpose - I still remember it!
I spent 9 years working in a wholesale parts house. We sold (among other things) a line of industrial temperature controls which used large mercury filled bulbs to sense the temperature.
Over the course of the years, we got many of these old sensors in for replacement. For a long time, each time one came in that still had mercury in it, I’d break the seal and dump the mercury out. As a result of this, I have an entire baby food jar full of mercury.
I spent many hours playing with it, running over my hands, floating stuff in it, etc. (Be careful about gold rings, however. Mercury forms an amalgam with gold very easily, and you get a silverish looking coating that you have to polish off, removing a little gold in the process. Not the best thing to do with that new wedding ring your wife gave you for your anniversary!)
That was in late 70s, early 80s, and I suppose it would be considered an environmental hazard these days. It was very pure mercury (I don’t remember the published specs, but IIRC it was the 99.99% pure kind of thing) and I never ate or inhaled any of it. But I played with it a bunch, and never had any ill effects (other than that ring incident) and neither did any of my co-workers.
I still have it, I use it as a paperweight on my desk. Makes a damn good one!
Handling pure mercury on occasion isn’t harmful, you can even swallow the stuff and the hspital won’t do anything for you but call you an idiot. Swallowing mercury-based compounds can very well be an easy ticket to the light at the end of the tunnel.
Lead is the same way. Did you ever notice that even though there are horrible stories about kids getting lead poisioning from paint chips, stores still sell crimp-on lead fishing weights (which everyone used to crimp on with their teeth, and a good many people still do)? - MC
Yes, very likely, most all of the mercury ever spilled was still there. Here’s an interesting factoid: when liquid mercury is dropped, it breaks into those tiny balls you saw that bounce all over, and then, due to its liquid properties and heavy weight, it is too heavy to sweep or vacuum up. Ordinary sweeping and vacuum cleaners will not remove it. - MC
One of my sons had a thermometer in his mouth when the other son came running into the room and jumped on the bed. In the process the thermometer was broken and (obviously) the mercury spilled out some landing on the bed and the boy. I called poison control (because I remembered my 7th grade science teachers comments about the toxicity of mercury) and was told that the primary danger in that situation was not so much the mercury as being cut by the thermometer. He was not cut, he had bitten it rather than had it mashed against his mouth. We were certain because of the way things happened that he hadn’t ingested any and the assistance operator told us that the most effective way to gather the mercury and dispose of it was to in fact roll the little balls together until they were all collected and take them in a container to the pediatrians office and drop them in a hazardous waste container there.
