How toxic is mercury ?

Question

I am a little confused as to how toxic is mercury ? I am interested in a factual answer to this question as I have heard of mad people snorting mercury and handling mercury and those people are still alive, where as mercury is always described as being a very toxic substance.
http://www.zyra.org.uk/mercury3.htm
This website shows someone holding mercury in the palm of his hand where as other websites says that only a very small amout of mercury like a few small drops is enough to kill you.
Please can you give sensable answer to this question.

Answer 1

Mercury is toxic in several ways.
At room temperature is gives off a vapour (which can be seen if you shine an ultra-violet light onto a screen in front of which is a bowl of mercury). As a vapour it is quickly absorbed through the lungs.
It is absorbed through the skin but very slowly. Only a small proportion is absorbed by the digestive system if the metal is swallowed. You would have to take almost a table-spoon full to make you seriously ill or kill.
Mercury compounds are seriously poisonous especially soluble ones like the chloride. Organo-mercury are the worse as they are very readily absorbed into the tissues of the body.
Mercury is very good at replacing the trace metal elements in the body such as copper, cobalt, chromium etc. At autopsy it can be found in almost every tissue in the body.
It is slowly eliminated from the body taking about 70 days for half of it to leave and another 70 days for half of the remaining to go.
It causes a whole host of illnesses from loosening of teeth, mental disturbance and organ failure.

Answer 2

This is an interesting a topic of conversations and I feel that through looking at the internet I was alarmed on the different points of views that I found both good and bad on the uses and abuses of mercury.
In my personal experiences I can only recall that at school whenever someone in the class ever droped a thermomitor the teacher would evacuate the room then spend the next few hours carefully trying to clear it up.
The next lession the teacher would then go on and on about how dangerous mercury is and how it will kill you.
Due to the fact that I have no scientific background sorry I can not comment on any thing factual mercury information.

Last of all I feel very sorry for the person you heard about that had snorted mercury and reading all of the posts so far cume up to the conclusion that this is not very good for his health.

Poor Him

Answer 3

Mercury is not as toxic as people often make out, this is largely due to its low solubility. However, if one is exposed to mercury vapour over a prolongued period then serious damage to the nervous system will occur. Salts of mercury are very toxic as the mercury in these is easily absorbed into the body, even through the skin.

For many decades an amalgam of mercury metal and iron was used to fill peoples' teeth, apparently this did little if any harm; it is only in recent years that this practice has stopped.

Despite this, care should be taken in the handling of mercury and it should be stored in a closed vessel. Great care must be taken in the disposal of mercury as it is damaging to the environment in the long term.

Answer 4

A good place to find actual toxicity of substances is to look at the material safety data sheet (MSDS). If you are using it in the workplace (or a school/university etc.), a supplier of any chemical is obliged to provide you with one. A large number can be found on the web. The first link to an MSDS is for use by chemistry students at Oxford University, and is a reasonable starting point. Take care, though, as some of these are not as accurate as they could be.
The risk phrases class it as toxic by inhalation and harmful by ingestion, and the toxicology data gives it as a TCLo of 150 microgrammes/m3 over a 46 hour period (TCLo = lowest recorded fatal concentration).
It is described as a chronic toxic substance. This means that the toxic effects are cumulative, and are worse with a lower exposure over a long period, rather than a short term exposure.
The second link gives very detailed information on the medical effects and case studies, if you want to go any deeper.

Answer 5

The speed and severity of Hg toxicity depends on the form that it's in. Volatile forms, such as methyl mercury are among the most toxic. Dissolved salts that are ingested (as solutions) are also fairly toxic fairly soon. Mercury metal itself might not shoot you in the head and drop you dead, but small droplets that are ingested can be transformed to other more toxic forms.

Don't play with mercury.

Answer 6

Mercury is toxic. It is absorbed through the skin. It also dissolves gold jewelry. It damages the brain and liver. The idea of the mad hatter cames from people who made hats out of felt that was treated with mercury. They became mad. from the exposure. It also causes birth defects. There were studies of mercury in tunafish, they were done with fishermen off the coast of Japan where there were industrial dumps.

Answer 7

My son crunched on a thermometer in the days when they contained mercury and I assumed that he'd swallowed some as there was very little rolling around. Never driven so fast as to that A&E but when we got there they didn't seem bothered at all and didn't offer any treatment.
Fast forward 15 years, he had ailments, the consultant had no answers and he went to a naturopath. She said that his system was showing up as full of mercury and she is treating him.

Answer 8

It isn't that toxic. Possibly 2-3 grams of mercury is fine, because they put it in childrens shots. 5-10.. that's about the average high for most people. Anything above that is pretty much deadly.

Answer 9

Mercury should be handled with care. Containers of mercury should be securely sealed to avoid spills and evaporation. Heating of mercury, or compounds of mercury that may decompose when heated, should always be carried out with adequate ventilation in order to avoid human exposure to mercury vapor. Mercury should never be used as decoration and or displayed in open containers. Most of its compounds are highly toxic, especially its inorganic compounds.

Answer 10

yea it takes a while to absorb thru the skin and of course prolonged exposure means more deadly/harmful the thing is i heard it takes a while to do anything like a week or something, the way i was told(like i said...told) it takes months. but im skeptical of stuff like that.

the reason mercury in a slate floor would be dangerous is because @ room temperature 70-80ish degrees in F it becomes a gas, and the gas is deadly to.