idiot playing with mercury (video)

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knifegill;3501478; said:
Tons of us played with Mercury as kids. We're alive. I read that the body does eventually eliminate it, but it takes decades.
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huh. now i wanna play with mercury.:nilly:

ancient chinese emperor shihuangdi (i think thats how its spelled) was prescribed mercury pills by his doctors... oddly enough they gave him some trippy hallucinations and odd thoughts :ROFL:
im pretty sure he was a major jerk tho. so its ok to laugh.....
 
Plec123;3501539; said:
huh. now i wanna play with mercury.:nilly:

ancient chinese emperor shihuangdi (i think thats how its spelled) was prescribed mercury pills by his doctors... oddly enough they gave him some trippy hallucinations and odd thoughts :ROFL:
im pretty sure he was a major jerk tho. so its ok to laugh.....
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ROLF I wonder if the doctor knew that was going to happen
 
I grew up next door to my Dad's dentist office in the 1970s. I used to pour out mercury into cupped hand and dribble it back and forth from one hand to the other.

Elemental mercury is actually not all that toxic. Ingested elemental mercury doesn't absorb into the body at all, but breathing vaporized elemental mercury is dangerous. Organic mercury compounds such as methyl mercury can be very dangerous. Some organic mercury compounds can kill in incredibly small doses and cause serious harm in infinitesimal amounts.
 
Good ol' quicksilver. Neat stuff. I didn't know that about elemental mercury toxicity, Dan, thanks for sharing it.

Just a tidbit: if the fluid in your thermometer is colored (usually red or blue), it's alcohol, not mercury. I've seen people freak out over a busted alcohol thermometer, convinced they'd just been exposed to deadly heavy metals. :nilly:
 
remember poisonous things can only hurt us if we ingest or introduce them to our circulatory systems.

playing with mercury is perfectly safe so long as you don't shoot, snort, or drink it :D
 
I was told it soaked into skin on contact. I don't know who told me that, though.
 
knifegill;3502169; said:
I was told it soaked into skin on contact. I don't know who told me that, though.
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any liquid is absorbed into your skin I'm pretty sure. especially in your palms where there are so many open pores
 
If you want to get technical about it, the majority of mercury poisoning cases in humans are the result of prolonged exposure to mercury vapor, not contact with skin or even ingestion, since liquid mercury is so dense it doesn't permeate intact skin or organs, however upwards of 80% of inhaled mercury vapors wind up going straight to the bloodstream. Playing with mercury was one of the many useless but fascinating sidebar topics over 3 years of chemistry.

touching it is fine, eating small amounts won't even hurt you... but holding your nose over it for a few hours probably isn't such a good idea. ;)
 
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