Mercury poisoning

[saike]

This is indirectly electronics related but may be interesting
I was working on an ex military site recently which is now a privately owned industrial site and I had a big (several tons) delivery of old surplus USSR military electronic and aviation stuff delivered from eastern Europe.
The stuff was hastily unloaded because it was absolutely pouring down with rain, and then the truck drove away. While I was sorting through the stuff I noticed there were small pools of mercury laying on the ground and a careful inspection found two jars of the stuff, one of which had fallen over and leaked everywhere.
One of my work colleagues ran around screaming "It's mercury, It's mercury, keep everyone away". I told him to calm down & keep quiet and proceeded to sweep the stuff into larger pools that I could then collect and put back in the jar, and I thought I had done a good job of clearing the whole area.
What I didn't know was that as the truck turned a corner to leave the site it left another (small) shower of mercury on the verge at the side of the road. A couple of days later I had a visit from the site safety & fire people who told me they were closing off a part of the area just up the road from my workshop while they dealt with a contamination problem left over from the military presence on the site and which they thought the persistent rain had uncovered, and I agreed, it was probably the rain that caused it.

Am I going to die from mercury poisoning and should I feel guilty?   

[NiHaoMike]

Mercury (and lead for that matter) is not that bad. As long as you don't eat it, heat it up enough to make a significant amount of vapor, or touch it too much (not too sure about that one), you should be fine. Keep in mind mercury used to be used for dental work!

The real risk is contamination causing it to enter water/food.

[Ampera]

Should you feel guilty? It doesn't seem to be your fault, you didn't break the jar.

Are you going to die? Mercury is an interesting element in many respects, and while my experience with it is not personal, I have picked up a few things about it. For one, mercury doesn't absorb into your skin. This is why channels like Cody's Lab can dip their entire hand in mercury. You really need to somehow ingest mercury into your bloodstream to get any negative effects. Cody's Lab also actually has a video on what to do when mercury is spilled. Mercury can actually shatter into many droplets all around the place, so the best course of action is to sweep up EVERYTHING dirt on the ground in the vicinity of the metal.

Obvious safety precautions include, do not lick it, do not put it on a wound, don't let your cats near the area.

[vk6zgo]

This is indirectly electronics related but may be interesting
I was working on an ex military site recently which is now a privately owned industrial site and I had a big (several tons) delivery of old surplus USSR military electronic and aviation stuff delivered from eastern Europe.
The stuff was hastily unloaded because it was absolutely pouring down with rain, and then the truck drove away. While I was sorting through the stuff I noticed there were small pools of mercury laying on the ground and a careful inspection found two jars of the stuff, one of which had fallen over and leaked everywhere.
One of my work colleagues ran around screaming "It's mercury, It's mercury, keep everyone away". I told him to calm down & keep quiet and proceeded to sweep the stuff into larger pools that I could then collect and put back in the jar, and I thought I had done a good job of clearing the whole area.
What I didn't know was that as the truck turned a corner to leave the site it left another (small) shower of mercury on the verge at the side of the road. A couple of days later I had a visit from the site safety & fire people who told me they were closing off a part of the area just up the road from my workshop while they dealt with a contamination problem left over from the military presence on the site and which they thought the persistent rain had uncovered, and I agreed, it was probably the rain that caused it.

Am I going to die from mercury poisoning and should I feel guilty?

Dying? Quite probably not---old time Gold Miners used mercury as a bonding agent to remove gold from the crushed ore after going through the crushing plant, or "Battery" as it was called.
The Gold adhered to the mercury, the other crud didn't.

My Grandfather & Uncle owned a Goldmine, which included its own "Battery", so they didn't have to travel to the "State Battery" as others did.
They used Potassium Cyanide for another process, & the big Commercial  mining companies used Arsenic for yet another.

One of my Grandfather's favourite tricks was to dip an old fashioned Penny in mercury "magically converting" it into a "Two Shilling piece", to the wonderment of us kids!
Some Miners did "turn up their toes" early, but that was mostly from Dust related ailments.

Guilty?----Certainly!Even though you know the concern is mostly duck poo, there is still that nagging feeling that maybe, just maybe, the panic merchants are right

[Ampera]

You better consult a doctor. Mercury is poisonous as it could affect the lungs, kidneys and nervous system. You should be consulting a good physician to know more. I was working in a plant that manufactures aluminium. Exposure to Aluminium dust had really started affecting my skin and health. I left the job and now I work for the Building contractors kerala. The job is pretty easy and comfortable.

Welcome to the EEVBlog forums.

Mercury can only affect you IF it gets inside of you. Unless you spend excessive amounts of time sniffing mercury vapors, or somehow ingest it, I wouldn't worry about it. Aluminium is also not the same as Mercury, as if you are in a situation where you might be inhaling solid mercury dust, you have much bigger problems on your hand considering you are standing in a spot cold enough to immediately kill you.

[dmills]

Note that while metallic mercury is not THAT nasty (It is basically a heavy metal, but not massively bio available), some mercury compounds are really bad news.
Do not for example mix it with a powerful methylating agent,  Dimethyl Mercury is pretty close to as nasty as non nuclear poisons get, it used to be the reference for nerve agent toxicity.

It is the salts and organo mercury compounds that really gives the stuff its reputation, you probably dont want to store it near things with available -CH3.

Regards, Dan.

[TerraHertz]

Hey, how was that leaky jar of mercury shipped from Eastern Europe to Britain? By air or sea?
Because if it was leaking when carried by air, *someone* has a severe problem.

Mercury is absolutely forbidden on planes. If it come in contact with the aluminium airframe, it can do that rapid alloying thing mercury does to aluminium, turning the structure into crumbly rubbish. Undesirable in airframes.

[Ampera]

Hey, how was that leaky jar of mercury shipped from Eastern Europe to Britain? By air or sea?
Because if it was leaking when carried by air, *someone* has a severe problem.

Mercury is absolutely forbidden on planes. If it come in contact with the aluminium airframe, it can do that rapid alloying thing mercury does to aluminium, turning the structure into crumbly rubbish. Undesirable in airframes.

That is one thing to note. Especially if it's a military shipment, they may or may not have put civilian grade checking into it. Good catch here...

[saike]

Hey, how was that leaky jar of mercury shipped from Eastern Europe to Britain? By air or sea?

The stuff came by road & sea from somewhere where they seem to have have a slightly different set of rules about health & safety compared to the on site COSHH  http://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/ representative I had running round in circles here.

My friend (now retired) who regularly purchased this stuff was also taken to an out of town site and offered an array of different weapons ranging from missiles to a vast assortment of handguns which he politely declined.

[T3sl4co1l]

Note that while metallic mercury is not THAT nasty (It is basically a heavy metal, but not massively bio available), some mercury compounds are really bad news.
Do not for example mix it with a powerful methylating agent,  Dimethyl Mercury is pretty close to as nasty as non nuclear poisons get, it used to be the reference for nerve agent toxicity.

It is the salts and organo mercury compounds that really gives the stuff its reputation, you probably dont want to store it near things with available -CH3.

Which is why it needs to be cleaned up carefully and responsibly, if released into the environment, where bacteria can do exactly that job.

Tim

[MT]

Hey, how was that leaky jar of mercury shipped from Eastern Europe to Britain? By air or sea?
Because if it was leaking when carried by air, *someone* has a severe problem.

Mercury is absolutely forbidden on planes. If it come in contact with the aluminium airframe, it can do that rapid alloying thing mercury does to aluminium, turning the structure into crumbly rubbish. Undesirable in airframes.

Yes in deed.

[Ian.M]

If the area contaminated was indoors, you still need to do a thorough cleanup with something that will chemically bind the mercury for your own and your colleague's safety.    If it was outdoors and the spill was recent, on a hard surface, the same cleanup procedures should be used. (Fine droplets remaining tend to evaporate and disperse so I wouldn't be concerned about the remains of a really old hard surface outdoor spill if as much as possible was initially collected) If there has been significant contamination of a dirt surface, specialist cleanup is probably required - see comments above about bacteria and organomercury.

See http://www.randombio.com/info/mercury.html for details of an effective cleanup procedure and more details of the hazards.

[Bassman59]

.

[langwadt]

Note that while metallic mercury is not THAT nasty (It is basically a heavy metal, but not massively bio available), some mercury compounds are really bad news.
Do not for example mix it with a powerful methylating agent,  Dimethyl Mercury is pretty close to as nasty as non nuclear poisons get, it used to be the reference for nerve agent toxicity.

It is the salts and organo mercury compounds that really gives the stuff its reputation, you probably dont want to store it near things with available -CH3.

Regards, Dan.

calling Dimethyl Mercury nasty is an understatement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn

[rrinker]

 Some 40 years ago we played with mercury on the tabletop. We didn't eat it, or try to inhale it. I'm still here, as are all of my classmates who were in that chemistry class.

 I've also been soldering for over 40 years. I don't eat the solder, nor deliberately inhale the fumes. Always leaded solder. Still alive and kicking. Granted always hobby level, I've never done production soldering, hours per day, every day. My parents didn't let me chew on parts of the house when I was a baby.

[Macbeth]

Note that while metallic mercury is not THAT nasty (It is basically a heavy metal, but not massively bio available), some mercury compounds are really bad news.
Do not for example mix it with a powerful methylating agent,  Dimethyl Mercury is pretty close to as nasty as non nuclear poisons get, it used to be the reference for nerve agent toxicity.

It is the salts and organo mercury compounds that really gives the stuff its reputation, you probably dont want to store it near things with available -CH3.

Regards, Dan.

calling Dimethyl Mercury nasty is an understatement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn

[calexanian]

Correct. You will be fine.

[doktor pyta]

[calexanian]

I have some problems with this video. I do a fair amount of high vacuum work and one thing I can tell you is that at atmospheric pressure and 50 degrees mercury noes not normally vaporize. If there is some other effect going on here I am open to hear about it, but mercury itself at the claimed pressure and temperature is not going anywhere. In vacuum however its a different story.

I am in no way advocating open evaporating dishes of metallic mercury as the next fad, but if its being used in a laboratory setting having some sitting in the open is probably not the most dangerous thing you did that day.

[helius]

one thing I can tell you is that at atmospheric pressure and 50 degrees mercury noes not normally vaporize.

According to the Chemical Rubber Co. Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, the vapor pressure at 50°C of mercury is 0.01267 mmHg. Since the pressure of the atmosphere is 760 mmHg, this reflects an equilibrium of 60,000 molecules of air to 1 atom of mercury vapor. Small, but not insignificant, and as the video explains, readily detectable by the UVC fluorescence technique.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

Hey, how was that leaky jar of mercury shipped from Eastern Europe to Britain? By air or sea?
Because if it was leaking when carried by air, *someone* has a severe problem.

Mercury is absolutely forbidden on planes. If it come in contact with the aluminium airframe, it can do that rapid alloying thing mercury does to aluminium, turning the structure into crumbly rubbish. Undesirable in airframes.

Gallium does these cool things too :-)

[saike]

I wish I had photographed all this stuff now but that was frowned upon by the company i was working for as a subcontractor. It wasn't anything important, it was all being used as film props. 

There were also a few steel tubes full of mercury about 25mm outer diameter x 30 cm. long with a screw cap on each end with one end painted red and the other end green. They looked very old and I would guess had been laying around unprotected for 10+ years.

[mikeselectricstuff]

The biggest risk is someone finding out, who has the power to impose an expensive clean-up order.
Metallic mercury isn't a big risk.
ISTR sulphur powder can be used to mop up spills.

 

[Gyro]

ISTR sulphur powder can be used to mop up spills.

A 1:1 mixture of sulphur/calcium hydroxide...

http://www.m-p.co.uk/muk/parts/chap14/mercury-spillage-powders-0798050015.htm

They sell the Mercury too.

[PartialDischarge]

Mercury is very poisonous affecting the central nervous system. Problem with the liquid metal is that it evaporates at room temperature.

Start eating raw celery on a regular basis, it is quite good for natural chelation of heavy metals