When I was a child it was fun to get the mercury out of those oral thermometers and coat pennies with them. It made them look wetly silver until they turned green. Most kids I knew did that more than once and at least some of us survived, I think. The son of a friend was playing with mercury in the eighties and managed to grow up. It probably prevented a super-Einstein because he only grew up to be recruited by NASA when he was a senior in High School. He had some significant input into the software on a Mars Rover project.
Wow! Amazing.
So much fear-mongering.
If you are still in touch with this person, I hope you will tell him thanks for his dedication.