14 May
2013
14 May
'13
12:29 a.m.
On 14/05/2013 01:59, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 05/13/2013 12:56 PM, Jim Stephens wrote:
> If it has been contaminated by an organic, or an acid + organic, and
> that is mixed in, the big deal. If it is purely metallic and you have
> sense enough not to swallow it, or lick your hands after you handled it
> then swallow, then less of a risk than if you get to one of the salts.
>
I remember when studying what in the "UK" we call A-Level Physics so
between 16 and 18, we had our lessons in an "old", I guess perhaps from
somewhere between 1890 and 1920, physics lab. This had benches which had
had mercury spilled on them over the years and collected in the cracks.
We would idly push it round the groves between the panels the desks were
made from and make in into larger balls, then split it back into smaller
balls. I often wonder what damage it did.
There again we kept the radio active sources in small lead lined tubs.
Each looked like a large roof tack, so a disk about 1/2 with a stem of
similar length. Occasionally we dropped one and it rolled round and
round the bench. We all worried about this until we put a WW2 Pilots
Watch under the Geiger counter. I wonder if its owner still has a wrist.
After that we often used the watch as it was far more radio active than
the actual sources we were provided with.
Dave
G4UGM
it is nasty
stuff with neurons, and it could be confirmed today whether
you did yourself in with exposure, because it is forever, it is one of
the things that accumulate in your body for life. Certainly a mass spec
analysis, or a heavy metal assay of your cremains would tell that and
other metals as far as whether they were in your body. Other tests may
hurt if it is done earlier.
I remember the very tragic case of Karen Wetterhahn's unfortunate
encounter with dimethyl mercury.
But isn't it a pretty good rule that most organic compounds of heavy
metals are pretty nasty? Lewisite and tetraethyl lead come to mind...
--Chuck