Not that I condone eating mercury in any way, shape, or form, but apparently some people did exactly that on a regular basis during the renaissance. The outcome was as expected. The surprising part was how long they seem to have lived eating mercury every day.
Elemental mercury really isn't as bad as people think when they hear "mercury". On its own, there's less interaction with biochemical processes. You can dip your hand in a bucket of the stuff and nothing will happen.
Once it does get bound up in an organic compound, however, everything changes. In particular, methyl and dimethylmercury are, in every way, the opposite. It readily absorbs through your skin, causes genetic mutations in cells, interferes with the immune system, and crosses the blood-brain barrier while acting as a neurotoxin.
Lest you think that is bad enough, it also happily passes through both latex and pvc gloves, and has a high enough vapor pressure that you don't ever want to open a jar of the stuff unless it is in an active fume hood. If you happen to notice that it has a sweet smell, you need to head straight to a hospital.
Should you get even as little as 0.1ml in your body, it will linger, slowly working its way around, potentially delaying symptoms for months, at which point it is too late for any treatment to be effective, and even that small of a dose will be fatal.
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Not that I condone eating mercury in any way, shape, or form, but apparently some people did exactly that on a regular basis during the renaissance. The outcome was as expected. The surprising part was how long they seem to have lived eating mercury every day.
Elemental mercury really isn't as bad as people think when they hear "mercury". On its own, there's less interaction with biochemical processes. You can dip your hand in a bucket of the stuff and nothing will happen.
Once it does get bound up in an organic compound, however, everything changes. In particular, methyl and dimethylmercury are, in every way, the opposite. It readily absorbs through your skin, causes genetic mutations in cells, interferes with the immune system, and crosses the blood-brain barrier while acting as a neurotoxin.
Lest you think that is bad enough, it also happily passes through both latex and pvc gloves, and has a high enough vapor pressure that you don't ever want to open a jar of the stuff unless it is in an active fume hood. If you happen to notice that it has a sweet smell, you need to head straight to a hospital.
Should you get even as little as 0.1ml in your body, it will linger, slowly working its way around, potentially delaying symptoms for months, at which point it is too late for any treatment to be effective, and even that small of a dose will be fatal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylmercury
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease
Well that's informative, if a little morbid. Duly noted, thanks.