Have You Touched Liquid Mercury?

Mercury is a heavy, liquid metal once common in thermometers and other equipment. Have you ever touched mercury or been exposed to it? Were you fine or did you experience symptoms or exposure? Did you shrug it off or seek medical attention? Here are responses from readers:

Info Is Exaggerated

Mercury does not absorb through your skin instantly. Elemental mercury does absorb through your skin, but at a very slow pace (very slowly). As long as you don’t expose your skin to the metal too much and you wash your hands after then you would be fine. If any mercury did absorb through your skin then the amount will be so small then you would urinate it out, leaving no mercury in your body and meaning it won’t build up to harmful amounts. In fact you could absorb more mercury by eating a can of tuna. I’m not trying to build up a false sense of safety with this material, as it’s not something you should have out all the time. If you kept exposing yourself every day even small amounts could build to harmful amounts in the body, while if you did it a couple of times a month then it won’t build up. And as for the vapor, when the mercury is at room temperature then the evaporation rate is only 0.063 ml per hour per cm squared of surface area exposed of mercury.

— chris

Played With Mercury

My dad’s dad was an inventor type, and I once found a little bottle with mercury. I poured some out and was amazed. I had a hard time getting it picked up off the counter. I told my dad I found it and he told me not to mess with it and that it is toxic if exposed for a prolonged time. Mercury is dangerous, and you need to be cautious not to be exposed to it directly for long periods of time, but simply handling it is not going to make you drop dead. It’s like cigarettes—deadly over long periods of exposure, but you aren’t going to die if you walk into a smoky bar and have a drink.

— Marcus

Things Mess Up

When I was in primary school my science teacher told us that we should not touch mercury and not to break the thermometer. Instead she was the one who broke it and the mercury spilled on me, all over my hands and maybe face. I’m not sure as it happened too fast. I was too shocked to take immediate action, and so all I did was wash my hands thoroughly. I’m not sure if that is enough.

— croc beauty

Mercury Risk

I touched mercury back in the day, before it was regulated. It is fun stuff. We all know better now, but I do need to chime in on the actual risks. The risk from elemental mercury is ingestion and inhalation. Ingestion is a “normal” risk, similar to that of other toxic chemicals and cleaners, and it should not be eaten. The vapor pressure of mercury is so low at room temperature that there is very little risk of inhalation. If you wash your hands after handling, risks are very low. But if you drop a bit, it could become atomized, and inhalation risks go up considerably. Also, if it is heated, as in artisanal gold mining, the risks are high. So, I agree, when mercury is dropped or vaporizes, evacuate the building. The more problematic and more toxic form of mercury, methylmercury, bioaccumulates, can have serious health consequences, especially for the young and unborn. According to the Blacksmith Institute, a third of the mercury in the environment is due to artisanal gold mines.

— jbd

People Thought It Was an Elixir

Jack London used to rub it on himself in the belief that it would cure him of illness. Needless to say, he did develop mercury poisoning, but that was over many years. So I am sure touching it once won’t hurt you at all.

— Chris

Hell Yeah

It was probably the funniest thing I ever did and I’m not brian damajed.

— Player

I Touched Liquid Mercury

It wasn’t intentional or planned, but when one of our thermometers in the lab was broken, we found it the right time to get the experience while we were trying to collect the small pieces. The experience of seeing the tiny pieces turned into a big one and break them again into tiny pieces was kind of interesting, if not amazing, to us during our freshman year.

— Elizabeth

Kentucky

I can’t imagine there would be so many stupid people who believe touching mercury would kill them. When I was in high school we spilled a pint bottle of mercury in the floor. We got down with notebook paper and scraped it up into a pile and scooped it up and put in back in the bottle. None of us died; in fact, most of us are now very well and over age of 75. Our local school broke a thermometer and the school was evacuated, closed, and a chemical response team called in to clean up the mercury.

— oldfellow

START HERE START HERE

Beautiful interesting element

I played with it as a kid and in high school, but was never around fumes. I’m now in my 60s, healthy and teaching.

— crazylablady

Loved those magical little beads!

In grade school during the early 60’s we were given mercury as a hands on experiment. Touch it and it bursts into tiny balls, round them up and they meld into one larger one. I’m 56 and pretty darn healthy! I also remember getting a tube of gunk that you could squeeze out a blob, blow it up into a balloon and pinch shut. Probably was full of lead! How did we survive such “unhealthy” childhoods!

— Ruthe

For sure!

When I was a grade-schooler, I belonged to an informal “science club”. We used to study various science topics and run low-cost experiments. One member had some mercury in a bottle that we put into a bowl and played with using our fingers, splitting it into smaller drops and then reuniting. We didn’t realize then it wasn’t a good idea! Maybe could account for some of my digestive problems now….?

— Steve

Mercury, lead, asbestos etc.

I rubbed mercury on coins, made lead soldiers, and our home water pipes were lead. When I worked in a large lab for two years in my early twenties we mixed asbestos, flour, and water to insulate our equipment. The inside of our noses were white with asbestos. A friend of mine who had a similar background died two years ago from a heart attack unrelated to mercury. I am 80 with no known health problems.

— Nomar

Thermometers

When I was a kid, back before there were spirit thermometers, the various oil companies and insurance companies used to mail out desk calendars with little thermometers on one side. I would collect as many as I could, break them open, and chase the globs of mercury around for hours, rolling it around in my hand and across the floor. I had amassed a sizable amount of Hg from several years of multiple calendars. The only warning I ever got was mom saying, “Don’t eat that stuff.”

— Rouxgaroux