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Comment on Dimethyl Mercury Exposure Incident at MITparent

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The density of Dimethyl Mercury is almost 3g/ml, so 0.1 mL is like 300 mg.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanide_poisoning

A fatal dose for humans is on average 1.52 mg/kg of body weight

Assuming 80kg(175pounds), that's like 120mg of Cyanide.

There is probably even more nasty stuff.

well, easily. any organophosphorus stuff for example.

Actually organophosphates are not that lethal. See the LD50 of this example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malathion

You may also be thinking of phosgene, which actually contains no phosphorous at all. But it is extremely toxic see the LC50: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene

This is not true, and choosing the LD50 of Melathion to represent organophosphates as a whole seems odd. He was probably thinking of nerve agents or perhaps pesticides. Take a look at the LD50's of the former. These are among the nastiest, most lethal substances known to man.

Yes. See for example any number of nerve agents such as VX. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_(nerve_agent). Yes, you can quibble over whether they count as "phosphates" given they often have fluoryl or other substituents, but the class is generally referred to as organophosphates, and they certainly have phosphorous in them. Malathion, is also an organophosphate which acts via the same pathway, but only in insects.

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