/sci/ - Science & Math

Got a bottle of Hg in my closet. Before I knew it was dangerous, I smelled it a dozen times. It's ... spicy.
Point is, do you want to be like me? Don't do it.

>>989948
GET OUT NAMEFAG

Its absorbed through your skin. Yes you will end up with parkinsons eventually.

I think there is a significant amount of uptake through the skin. Probably no more dangerous than me working in a polymer chemistry lab with all of my yummy organic solvent floating around, but at least I'm aware of all the risks.

>>989926
Nah you'll be fine, people used to play with it all the time in old school science classes

I think if you use gloves and don't cover yourself you will be fine. If you work with it all the time unprotected you will end up as mad as a hatter.

>>989926
You must resist the urge to touch it OP
Even though it looks really really cool

>>989960
Standard nitrile gloves don't protect against mercury adsorption. Also if it's methylmercury I've got bad news for you.

You know how old people are all shaky and demented? How you look in their blurry eyes and realize they are barely half sane? Mercury does that.

eat some, post results

It's the vapour and the mercury compounds that make it toxic.
Elemental mercury apparently didn't do much to animals when fed some of it.

>>989926
Don't worry about it, mercury will just make you a little crazy. Being a little crazy is something I look for in a /sci/entist.

Einstein regularly played with mercury as a child.

Your lungs readily absorb mercury vapor. Here is a vid showing mercury vapors, they cast a shadow with UV light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpZF88fqrl8

>>989981

>>989992

I lol'ed

>>989984
OP here, that's all I needed to see. I know it is fairly safe on skin, but I didn't expect it to evolve vapor in significant quantity at room temperature.

Elemental Hg - Chronic spooning resulting in slow sodomy of brain with sand

Methylated Mercury - Insta-48'' LCD Monitor up your ass

Side note: Elemental Mercury can be methylated by the body.

>>990122
I like sodomy...

>>989984
Thank you, /sci/. I have been educated.

I think mercurys a pretty cool guy. eh kills braincells and doesnt afraid of anything.

>>990126

Brain sodomy? I've heard of cramming but that might be going a bit too far...

How Mercury Causes Neurodegeneration (Brain Damage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VImCpWzXJ_w&feature=related

if you rarely have occasion
to encounter mercury
it's unlikely it will pwn you

Elemental mercury is only dangerous when vaporized.

You;re pretty much fucked after that.

>>990186
Then you'll love this.
>>989984

a friend who has treated mercury poisoning at an ER says that they treat mercury posioning patients from time to time. She says that it isn't that serious. long term exposure is something to worry about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylmercury

You know the trope about mad hatters, a la Alice in Wonderland? It's because hatters used to work with mercury. Doesn't kill you right away, but if you're working with it daily it'll eventually make you crazy.

>>990122
>>990122
>>990122
>>990122
>>990122
>>990122


"methylated mercury"


who the fuck are you?


its called DIMETHYL mercury

and its fucking horific.


some bitch inorganic professor was working in her glove box....

she accidentally dropped exactly 1 drop on her buytl rubber glove (butyl rubber is super thick and hard to penetrate)


she instantly knew she would be dead within 1 month


its the equivalent of getting a high dose of radiation, in the sense that you know you will die and there is absolutely nothing that can be done.


also the body does not methylate metals very easily

methylation of biochemicals is relatively simple, because the substrates are always substantially nucleophilic.

mercury requires stronger methylating agents.

even methyl iodide would have to be heated substantially to methylate mercury.

Hur dur, Mercury is dangerous because it evaporates incredibly quickly and you inhale it.

You stupid fucks.

>>990952
dude jesus fucking christ, learn to make visually appealing posts

>Dimethylmercury is extremely dangerous. Absorption of doses as low as 0.1 mL has proven fatal.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

who do i buy or produce dimethyl mercury?

>>991013

Enjoy your death

>>990952

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? KNEW SHE WAS GOING TO DIE AND COULDN'T DO JACK?

>>991013

You dont.

>>991013
>>991013
>>991013


you need lots of equipment to make it.

you need a glove box, a shit ton of reagents (almost all of which are ridiculously toxic, even the solvents), a fucking big ass vacuum pump, a cylinder of argon, a bunch of glassware, a few stir plates, and an oil bath or 2.

>>991038
>>991038
>>991038


yeah, Ill try to find the article. I must have heard an exageratted story:
she did NOT use a glove box, or butyl gloves. she was using it in a simple fume hood. she had normal latex gloves (fucking retard). she died within 1 year, not a month.

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/dimethylmercury/dmmh.htm
its funny, they say "oh she took precautions." bullshit.

she knew how dangerous it was. she should have handled it in a glovebox.

>>991038
Uh not really. 5 months after the incident she knew something was wrong and went to the hospital. She was told her symptoms were due to mercury poisoning and then she remembered the incident.

>>991090
>Chemist Detected

>>991100

Why did she not report this when it happened? She knew of the incident,did she want death?

>>991103
>>991103


yes. because I know what it takes to synthesize chemicals, I must be a chemist.


but yeah, I am a chemist.

>>991090

Really silly question perhaps but can I get an answer on my amalgum fillings? Is fear of having them hurting me more than "vapor" that emanates from the 4 that I have?

>>991109
I have no idea why. Maybe she was an idiot.

>>991090
I think this is the link you are referring to.
http://www.osha.gov/dts/hib/hib_data/hib19980309.html

>When informed that her symptoms were due to mercury poisoning, the spill incident was recalled and she indicated that she had removed the gloves promptly and did not think any more about the incident.

Yeah,looks like she was a idiot.

>>991118
I would assume that most of the mercury that evaporates from fillings does so within the first year or so. I am thinking about this now, and I occasionally have trouble speaking when I never did as a child, and my hands are always a little shaky. I also have amalgam fillings in 13 of my teeth. Neat.

>>991168

I've heard that when taking out amalgam fillings you are exposed to about 1000 times more mercury during the procedure than a regular day. Unless your dentist has a complex setup with multiple suction tubes, damns etc etc.

There might be new techniques in Europe by now though that will reduce the chance of toxicity to practically nill. But damn...13 fillings is quite a bit though I gather they do become stable.

It's only natural that something so awesome would kill you.

>>991168
>13 fillings
Jesus christ.
Have you ever heard of brushing your teeth?
Also, amalgam fillings are harmless.

fuck fuck fuck

CAN YOU IMAGINE CUMMING MERCURY? LIKE, "AH FUCK MAN WATCH THIS SHIT" AND THEN *BLAST OF MERCURY* RIGHT OUT THE COCK.

>>989984
oh my god. FUCK that's horrifying.

>>991326
you absorb it slowly. Every time you chew it's released.

I told my dentist not to ever give me an amalgam filling but she fucking did anyway and I am really, really pissed off. Even if it's only one, I'm still angry as hell.

kill the bitch with mercury

>>989926
Kids in the '60-70s played with it when it came out of broken thermometers.

Its a little more dangerous than lead, but people still use lead fishing weights. Though generally its best to wash your hands and not get poisoned.

>>991326
Neat story there, in puberty I grew some mammary glands under my nipples (I'm a dude) and all I knew was I had hard lumps that hurt, so I assumed I had cancer and wasn't going to see age 18. So I didn't brush my teeth. True story, you can't make this shit up.

elemental mercury is only really dangerous by inhaling the fumes. organic mercury is what kills ya

>>991531
Your body converts the fumes into organic mercury.

I used to play with some as a child. it was in a little pill bottle and I shook it around. I found it really cool the way it broke apart and then came back together, and also that it looked like a metal, but it was actually liquid.
Hg is sick

>>991595

Did you ever touch it? I can't remember if I touched mercury or not but I do remember playing with it.

>>991661
No I didn't. Grandma strictly told me to leave it in a bottle, otherwise I'd get very sick

Shit...I have a broken mercury thermometer (broken around 50C line) and I am yet to dispose it. How can I do this? Any ideas?

>>991122
>>991122
>>991122
>>991122


LOL

>>991122

Been out of business for years man...

>>991577

Oh shit. Does this mean amalgum fillings to a tiny extent also get converted to organic mercury?

This stuff scares the shit out of me...

>>991524
>>991524

> in puberty I grew some mammary glands under my nipples

the adult human body can actually handle quite a bit of mercurey
methyle mercury which is in all fish is is one of mercurys most active forms and we eat the stuff

but pregnant woman and small children need to be aware of too much consumption of mercury from fish because babies cant handle mercury that much

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_amalgam_controversy

Well, fuck.

>>991709
No shit, my man, I could produce milk for a starving newborn with nipple stimulation and I'd probaby have to smell some starving baby pheromones. My body is more useful than yours.

In ancient times Chinese women would drink mercury as birth control. So much for ancient eastern wisdom.

Mercury in fillings isn't a problem; unless you're a dentist or dental nurse, in which case there is an elevated risk of mercury-related illness later in life.

IOW, if you're inhaling powdered amalgam day after day throughout your adult life, it *might* be a problem. Otherwise, don't worry about it.

Can /sci/ give an opinion as to the credibility of this video critiquing amalgum fillings?

>>991814
I bet it did keep them from having babies though...

>>991873
I watched that one, and it appears the entire tooth was coated in mercury for the video - the sides give off vapor. I would guess that since amalgam fillings contain only about 50% mercury by volume, and that all but one face of that volume is covered by tooth matter, that the actual vapor amount is much less even when it's fresh.

I would like to know if the mercury is absorbed at all through the root of the tooth, blood supply and all.

>>991888

Ouch looks like the link just vanished. Someone tell a newfag what happened? Do mods come and nuke links if the urls are properly formed--did I fuck up?

Posting just a non clickable link to the video nao, you know where to put the magic character sequence: 9ylnQ-T7oiA

>>991888

I have heard that mercury vapor is emitted in tiny amounts when you chew really really hard on gum or even certain types of food. I was also told I should not use h2o2 for dental hygiene either because it might release Hg from the filling.

>>991339

>>991888
If tooth fillings were really that bad everyone would be having issues with it
I hate it when nut jobs claim that they're victims because their dentists just gave them some fillings
Also I'm pretty sure dentists know what they're doing. Its not like they have a huge conspiracy so normal people won't know they're poisoning them or something.

>>992098
Dentists know what they are taught in school, just like the rest of us.

>>992106

Dentists are also shit scared of lawyers and the ADA too are they not?

>>992118
It may correlate on why dentist have the highest suicide rates out of all the professions...

So let's say you're that chemistrylady who died of mercury exposure.

LET'S SAY YOU JUST SPILLED SOME ON YOUR INADEQUATELY PROTECTED HAND

WHAT DO YOU DO /SCI/?!

http://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/thermo/liquid_metal/liquid_metal.html

Gallistan, a mixture of Gallium, Iridium, and tin. Melting point is around -20 C, depending on the proportions. Non-toxic.

The only downside is that it wets glass, and doesn't have the awesome surface tension mercury does.

>>992142
I died, what's there to do?

>>992121
What about air traffic controllers?

>>992142
You're fucked
Enjoy your parkinsons/ schizophrenia i guess

>>992162
It melts metals by alloying with them. if you place some on a sheet of aluminum, it will quickly mix with the aluminum and dissolve through it.

>>989926
/sci/entists don't need women!

>>992142
could I cut off my hand?

>>992192
lol no
The mercury would travel through your blood stream up into your brain almost instantly
Either way I rather be a bit eccentric due to mercury poisoning than cutting off my hand

>>992178
I didn't know THAT happened, I've seen many times people alluding to mercury "reacting" with aluminum and I assumed it made toxic smoke or some shit. I am sort of an amateur prospector, and I have read many instructions on how to use mercury to recover fine gold from concentrated heavy dirt. after you get all the dirt out, you place the mercury in a syringe with a cotton ball stuffed all the way down in it. The mercury comes out the tip, the gold stays in the cotton ball and you burn the cotton ball (downwind) and the gold remains behind in the ashes. I know the mercury does not alloy with the gold, it just sticks to it. I have had gold flakes that I personally dredged up clean become covered by a film of mercury which turned it silver, and then I cleaned the mercury off by cooking the gold in a pan on a small propane stove. Pic is my gold, before cooking the merc off.

>>992121

Hard to say how much of that has to do with that big weight on their conscience that possibly builds up as they "mature" into someone who realizes how fucked up their niche it. Or how much of that has to do with mad hatter syndrome.

>>992262
It's more likely to be the fact that they have to look into, and SMELL peoples' mouth all day.

the thing in thermometers isnt toxic though.. right?

ancient oracle say quicksilver impart immortality when ingested

>>992530

>>992499

From what I gather at some point in recent history manufacturers were forced to get a clue and thermometers have some red stuff in them. But the silver stuff unfortunately is deadly. Yikes, I wonder if I ever touched any of it as a kid. I had no idea it could be that dangerous and in such a stealthy way too.

>>992499
i used to play a lot with the mercury from a broken thermostat when i was a kid i still have the blob in a sealed container actually
am i going to die? because i remember reading somewhere the thing in thermostats is not the toxic type

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j2X6HZrfdE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xc0SMMCs08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xc0SMMCs08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xc0SMMCs08


Try not to lose your shit at 3:06.

>>992663
here.

There's also this vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ie5-Lodpiw


For extra fun, try reading some comments.

>>992676
>>992663
Jesus. These people have to be either dead or in an asylum by now.

>>992655

I feel a lot better after watching that lol. But my fillings, I donno one day I plan on having them replaced with a zero mercury filling. 100% silver possibly?

>>992688
they make white fillings nowdays dunno out of what but im reluctant to replace mine because it means more fucking painful scary drilling

>>992702

Yeah pain is scary and so is full anesthesia however what's actually dangerous is the fact that when you get amalgam fillings removed there is a horrible spike in mercury levels and much of it seeps into your tooth surface too so for the next few days you will be absorbing very large amounts of mercury supposedly.

But still, this has to be dealt with one day and I must prepare myself psychologically.

>>992702
ceramic fillings

>>989948
I like you Josef, you halped with my maths. Im no idiot no more.

>>992499
Most thermometers use alcohol now. I believe they use methanol, maybe ethanol. So not nearly as toxic as mercury at those levels, and pretty harmless if it's ethanol.

when I was in high school some kids went to the old abandoned industrial plant (not sure what it was for) and found some mercury. One kid thought it would be funny to pour a bucket of mercury on his friends and ended up poisoning them and killing one. The day he came back to school before his trial he got the living shit beat out of him before 1st period even started. Fuck that kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j2X6HZrfdE&NR=1

LOL watch this bitch

>>992771

Damn, that shit's full retard