12 Jan
2006
12 Jan
'06
11:48 p.m.
On 1/11/2006 at 12:58 PM Bj??rn Vermo wrote:
Back when I studied chemistry, mercury was considered
harmful but not very
dangerous. Then, new biology research proved it to be one of the most
hazardous metals because it takse very small amounts of organic mercury
compounds to cause permanent damage. I think much of that resarch started
after the Minemoto disaster in Japan.
Organic mercury I could believe. There was a story awhile back about a
Dartmouth chemistry professor who managed to spill a few drops of dimethyl
mercury on her latex gloves with tragic results:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn
I think you mean "Minamata Bay Disease" which was a tragic episode that
involved methylmercury in fish eaten by residents. There was also an Iraq
episode back in the 1970's that involved grain treated with methyl mercury
as a fungicide.
From everything I've read, inorganic mercury as
well as the elemental
metal are far less dangerous.
Cheers,
Chuck