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I got exposed to toxic material of a thermometer...
gnif:
When I was about 6 I found in my dad's electronics junk a mercury switch that had an extra "terminal", it was actually a metal stem used to fill the vile which was crushed after filling. Being the curious type of child decided to bend this till it tore open to see why it had this curious extra stem, and on doing so the mercury in the switch spayed into my eyes. My parents took me to the hospital and they couldn't remove the tiny beads of mercury floating around and basically sent me home saying there was nothing they could do.
30+ years later, I am still here, no known ill effects, it's still a concern in the back of my mind but as it was the metal form of mercury and based on what I understand of it today, I am quite doubtful I was poisoned by it in any significant way.
HighVoltage:
In my childhood I had access to lots of old mercury switches, that is how I got a hold of this amazing liquid metal.
These switches were made of glass, and some really good switches were under vacuum. I know this, because these were not easy to break and with enough mechanical force, some of them imploded, like a TV tube. Over the years I must have collected about 1 liter bottle full of mercury and it was so much fun to play with. Sometimes it ran down the kitchen table and splashed all over the floor in tiny pieces.
These days its probably not so easy to get a hold of mercury.
Who knows, maybe special permits are needed to buy it. :-DD
Dimethylmercury ((CH3)2Hg) is a different story, this is pure poison and you want to keep your hands away.
I am still flabbergasted, that some dentists are still using mercury fillings for teeth.
Smokey:
--- Quote from: HighVoltage on August 22, 2023, 09:38:32 pm ---...
These days its probably not so easy to get a hold of mercury.
Who knows, maybe special permits are needed to buy it.
...
--- End quote ---
https://www.newark.com/durakool/4539/tilt-switch/dp/82H9622
Stray Electron:
There was an old neon sign shop in the town that I lived in as a kid. We used to go in there and they would let us collect mercury that had spilled on the floor. We would take bits of papers and push the drops around to form bigger drops and then carefully scoop them them up. The floors and all of the work benches in the place we all covered in tiny drops of mercury. The same shop had a big pile of old used Neon sign transformers outside that they had taken out of service and they told us to take any of them that we wanted. I still have a couple of the bigger transformers (27mA @15,000 V IIRC) and some of the mercury that I collected there.
HighVoltage:
--- Quote from: gnif on August 22, 2023, 09:36:14 pm ---When I was about 6 I found in my dad's electronics junk a mercury switch that had an extra "terminal", it was actually a metal stem used to fill the vile which was crushed after filling. Being the curious type of child decided to bend this till it tore open to see why it had this curious extra stem, and on doing so the mercury in the switch spayed into my eyes. My parents took me to the hospital and they couldn't remove the tiny beads of mercury floating around and basically sent me home saying there was nothing they could do.
30+ years later, I am still here, no known ill effects, it's still a concern in the back of my mind but as it was the metal form of mercury and based on what I understand of it today, I am quite doubtful I was poisoned by it in any significant way.
--- End quote ---
What a cool story!
Your parents really must have been scared.
Would be interesting, if you ever need an MRI and the tiny beads would still show up.
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