Posted on 09/06/2007 5:11:22 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
We used to freeze Hg with liquid N2 and made a hammer with it before it thawed. We also had cinnibar which when heated released metallic Hg/ We were in mortal danger and did not realize it. Ha!
’ ,,
Hmmm...”...there lead by idiots!”
“Look! There’s lead” he said as he spied the pencil.
My experiences mirror those of many here. I played with mercury on a number of occasions as a child. I have a set of mercury carb stix in my garage (for balancing carbs on four cylinder bikes) that contains a good ounce (weight) at least of mercury. I suppose a small amount of it is steadily vaporizing and in the air of the garage, and maybe the rest of the house. I’m not aware of having any adverse affects from the above. The worst case may be when it’s spilled in an area where the same people are resident all the time, due to the increased surface area for vaporization and the risk of long-term exposure.
Anyway, the MSDS for liquid elemental mercury is pretty scary, if you believe those things. They tend to make the worst of things: http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/M1599.htm
Trust me. Mercury is not magnetic.
Yep. That was Mercury. We used to buy those things at Thrifty Drug store for 50 cents. When the puzzle got easy, we'd break them apart and play with the mercury.
Those were the good old days. We used to sprinkle DDT on ant hills and pour our used oil into a hole in the back yard.
All my friends who died were killed in automobile accidents or drowned. Well, one guy died of meningitis and another had a heart attack during a basketball game. I think one of my friends was eaten by a shark (he walked out into the ocean and nobody ever saw him again). The shark probably died later from mercury poisoning.
Well whatever my dad brought home, it was liquid metal and it was magnetic. Possibly a mixture of mercury and something else?
“dip your dimes into the mercury to get them all shiny, “
That I remember well! Probably would never even thought about it again in my lifetime if I hadn’t come upon this thread, LOL!
No freaking doubt. Perhaps there would be some concern if they poured it into an atomizer and sprayed it around a room, but a tiny amount on the floor is certainly not something to evacuate a school over.
This is crazy. Hazmat and a bazillion firetrucks came to a local middle school in my town this summer when a teacher broke a mercury thermometer. School wasn’t even in session.
You’re like doesn’t have any stats on people dying ingesting mercury from fish. Why is that?
The danger from acute exposure to minimal amounts of mercury is nil. Yet people like you like to create panic and close down schools and send out Hazmat crews for two lousy drops of mercury.
I'll bet you can't find a similar case in the last 40 years.
There was a case of mass mercury poisoning in Iraq in the early 1970's when people ate grain containing a mercury-based fungicide. I don't think there has been anything similar in the last 30 years.
You could pour it into your mouth and you would probably not suffer any permanent ill effects.
In the autobiography of Casanova he recounts what happened after he was given mercury as a cure for a venereal disease. It has such a profound effect on his mind that he joined a monastery in Switzerland. When the effects began to wear off he realized that he had made a big mistake.
The danger from acute exposure to minimal amounts of mercury is nil.
The problem with elemental mercury is that it vaporizes and can be breathed in over a long period of time if it is not cleaned up. So the hazmat crews are not needed because someone might touch mercury. But most people would not want to have their kids going to a classroom where spilled mercury had not been cleaned up. Undoubtedly there is a lot of over-reaction in this area.
There is no doubt that acute exposure to organic compounds of mercury can be highly toxic.
When I was a kid I spilled mercury in my room and some of it remained in cracks in the floor. It's probably still there. Unfortunately I cannot use myself as an example of someone who can point to no possible ill effects.
A thermometer? Aw, fer cryin’ out loud! From the title, I thought there had been an huge industrial accident.
Must have been a little bit of iron at the tip of the thermometer column of Hg.
Must have been a little bit of iron at the tip of the thermometer column of Hg.
Your post would have more punch without the 2 misused homophones
Wow, just wow.
I remember when we used to ride behind the trucks that dusted for mosquitoes. I’m not sure what that stuff was, but it kept us from getting chewed up by ‘skeeters’
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