Posted on 01/18/2007 10:07:43 AM PST by BurbankKarl
Darn right! Quicksilver searches high and low.
Used to have a lot of fun with the stuff, 75 years ago or so. Probably cut a lot of years off my life.
Back in my youth (which was a long time ago) we had "mercury vapor" street lights. Can anyone tell me how much mercury was actually in those lights?
How dangerous was it back then for kids who would shoot out those lights with a BB gun and then stand under them to catch the dripping liquid? Or let it drip on their heads or even into their mouths? (Oh, no. Not me. I'd never have done such a thing).
"Accidently" breaking a mercury thermometer would give us hours and sometimes days of fun playing with the quicksilver. And I couldn't begin to tell you how much lead shot I chewed on (and swallowed) as a kid.
I probably need to be buried in a toxic waste dump when I die. But I ain't dead yet!
You failed to state your assumptions about the size of the room, humidity, air exchanges, and number of people exposed.
The subway is a big place.
And OSHA threshold limits are for 8 hour per day, 5 day per week exposures, not absolute exposure limits.
"Probably cut a lot of years off my life."
LOL.
Neither of us would be alive if one-tenth of the stuff "that will kill us" actually did.
I was an I&C Engineer in the 60's and 70's, if I haven't died from Mercury poisoning from Bailey equipment, you ain't either.
If we ever have a real emergency, the largest amount of deaths may come from first-responders trampling each other.
Whats "I&C"?
Health Hazard Summary: Overexposure to elemental (metallic) mercury most commonly affects the nervous system, causing weakness, fatigue, and loss of appetite. It can also damage the kidneys. In limited studies, mercury has been found to affect pregnancy or fertility in male and female laboratory animals. A major source of chronic exposure to mercury is from inadequate cleanup of spills.
HOW MERCURY ENTERS AND AFFECTS YOUR BODY
Liquid mercury easily changes into a vapor. You are most likely to be exposed by breathing in mercury vapors, which are easily absorbed through your lungs into your body. Liquid mercury is not well absorbed through the skin. However, harmful absorption can occur through broken or damaged skin, or if there is lengthy skin contact.
Most effects of mercury exposure develop slowly over time. Symptoms usually occur only after repeated overexposure. These effects include insomnia, loss of appetite, nausea, weakness, and muscle tremors. Brief exposures to very high levels of mercury vapors can affect the lungs.
"The man then reaches for an MTA intercom and tells a worker he dropped mercury there, according to sheriff's officials, before disappearing.
But in what officials admit was a breakdown in procedure, MTA workers didn't immediately clear out the area — or notify law enforcement or the fire department. Hazmat crews didn't respond to the scene until 7:15 a.m. the next morning — eight hours later. "
Definitely a test to see how we react and we did nothing. Nobody even checked it out.
Suppose it had been anthrax?
ROFL! That just sounds funny!
Where can you see the video for this?
When my Dad, now 87, was a lad, after a long dry spell, he and his buds would slip into the storm sewers of Louisville, KY for a mercury hunt.
The mercury would be in bright shiny puddles in the low areas. They would scoop it up with tablespoons and pour it into coke bottles.
Returning to the surface, the coke bottles would go under their Mama's sink to be reused as drain cleaner.
So far he has shown no ill effects from his recycling efforts.
You failed to state your assumptions...
Yup, I did. But the emergency people will look at the low exposure limit and go bananas.
The OSHA number is not a TLV, it's a max. There is no TWA attached to it.
Whatever.
I'm not sure what your problem is but I wasn't talking about the mussies. I was talking about me being in elem. school in the 60's. We all played with mercury then. Please read my original post before attacking me.
WWMWD?
What will Maxine Waters do? Condemn a member of a minority group, or condone this case of blatant environmental pollution?
EXPOSURE LIMITS
* OSHA PEL The current Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) permissible exposure limit (PEL) for mercury vapor is 0.1 milligram per cubic meter (mg/m(3)) of air as a ceiling limit. A worker's exposure to mercury vapor shall at no time exceed this ceiling level.
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthguidelines/mercuryvapor/recognition.html
Whatever Rev. 1
I remember playing with mercury that some kid had brought to school, on the playground.
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