Don't mess with organic mercury

[Red Squirrel]

Damn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ7M01jV058

 

[OutHouse]

damn even with gloves on she still got messed up.

 

[UsandThem]

This reminded me of watching a video of a guy flushing mercury in a toilet to see how it would work. There must be a difference between the two because this guy really doesn't have much protection:

(edit: after watching the video, the guy states mercury nitrate can absorb through the skin, so he wears gloves for that portion of the video).

 

[Skunk-Works]

And why do we make this shit again?

 

[Newbian]

And why do we make this shit again?

We really need to ban dihydrogen monoxide as that is the worst thing ever yet we still have hundreds of deaths linked to it each year sadly.

 

[BoomerD]

We really need to ban dihydrogen monoxide as that is the worst thing ever yet we still have hundreds of deaths linked to it each year sadly.

http://www.dhmo.org/

 

[sdifox]

This reminded me of watching a video of a guy flushing mercury in a toilet to see how it would work. There must be a difference between the two because this guy really doesn't have much protection:

(edit: after watching the video, the guy states mercury nitrate can absorb through the skin, so he wears gloves for that portion of the video).

Wtf why would anyone do that

 

[DietDrThunder]

And why do we make this shit again?

Seems like I remember recently reading that in the olden days they used to use Mercury as a laxative. This is how they were able to find all of the camp sites of Lewis and Clark. I guess Lewis on the expedition was always getting constipated, and Clark would say, "Hey dude, take some of this Mercury shit, it will clean you right out".

 

[clamum]

I like that dude's channel (especially these series of videos). I think this mercury one or a similar one was on my Recommend videos and I watched it and thought he made some quality shat.

 

[Fritzo]

When I was a kid, I had a Quicksilver game, and like any red-blooded American boy, I took it apart. The mercury dropped out and splashed all over the carpet. I never told anyone about it.

Now, 40 years later, I look back on that and wonder if mercury poisoning is the reason I'm so goofy

 

[Exterous]

We really need to ban dihydrogen monoxide as that is the worst thing ever yet we still have hundreds of deaths linked to it each year sadly.

Florida country radio morning-show hosts Val St. John and Scott Fish are currently serving indefinite suspensions and possibly worse over a successful April Fools' Day prank. They told their listeners that "dihydrogen monoxide" was coming out of their taps. Dihydrogen monoxide is water.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/04/florida-djs-april-fools-water-joke/316668/

 

[IronWing]

When I was a kid, I had a Quicksilver game, and like any red-blooded American boy, I took it apart. The mercury dropped out and splashed all over the carpet. I never told anyone about it.

Now, 40 years later, I look back on that and wonder if mercury poisoning is the reason I'm so goofy

One of the joys of going to grandma's house was getting to play with the mercury games.

Anyway, methyl mercury is far more bio-available than elemental mercury.

On flushing mercury: during the Manhattan Project, the War Dept pretty much cornered the world mercury market and was stockpiling mercury at Oak Ridge. Over the following decades, mercury leaked into the sewer system. To clean it up, workers had to be lowered down manholes and scoop up liquid mercury into buckets. The workers had to be harnessed as it is impossible to stand on puddles of mercury (specific gravity = 13.6).

 

[JTsyo]

This is why they don't allow Mercury on flights.

 

[zinfamous]

damn even with gloves on she still got messed up.

It definitely depends on the gloves. In that example, assuming it was the same as what the chemist is wearing, she could have been wearing nitrile gloves which, I believe, offer very little protection for certain methylated or heavy metal compounds or what not. I'm not sure if latex (or a certain grade of latex) offers proper protection in that case or not. All of those materials represent a specific lattice of molecules arranged in a certain way and, chemistry being chemistry, can very easily be compromised when the proper molecule comes into direct contact with it. It's why you don't want to let chlorine (bleach) or EtOH come into contact with polystyrene (many of the "hard" plastics, like lucite), wheres these are perfectly fine being stored in polypropylene, a "softer" material. ...well, I'm not a chemist so I probably futzed that explanation up a bit with the plastics, but doing this wrong can certainly lead to serious consequences.

 

[sdifox]

It definitely depends on the gloves. In that example, assuming it was the same as what the chemist is wearing, she could have been wearing nitrile gloves which, I believe, offer very little protection for certain methylated or heavy metal compounds or what not. I'm not sure if latex (or a certain grade of latex) offers proper protection in that case or not. All of those materials represent a specific lattice of molecules arranged in a certain way and, chemistry being chemistry, can very easily be compromised when the proper molecule comes into direct contact with it. It's why you don't want to let chlorine (bleach) or EtOH come into contact with polystyrene (many of the "hard" plastics, like lucite), wheres these are perfectly fine being stored in polypropylene, a "softer" material. ...well, I'm not a chemist so I probably futzed that explanation up a bit with the plastics, but doing this wrong can certainly lead to serious consequences.

Consult Walter White first :biggrin:

 

[ImpulsE69]

So, I realize that thing is like 20 years old, but as an expert, how did they/she not know those gloves would not protect? I mean...woops?

Also, lots of confusion over the kinds of mercury: ie in thermometers, vaccines, salmon, and the stuff she was messing with. So I guess I learned something today.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wtf why would anyone do that

For science!

I think the shiny mercury is one of the safer forms of it, though still dangerous if you get it inside your body, but less so on surface. Still would not mess with it myself though.

 

[sdifox]

For science!

I think the shiny mercury is one of the safer forms of it, though still dangerous if you get it inside your body, but less so on surface. Still would not mess with it myself though.

that is a very large quantity of mercury to dump into the water. Waster water treatment doesn't include mercury recovery does it?

 

[Darwin333]

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/04/florida-djs-april-fools-water-joke/316668/

Good lord, even the government officials, after having ample time to comprehend everything, continued to be idiots.

"My understanding is it is a felony to call in a false water quality issue," Diane Holm, a public information officer for Lee County

There was absolutely nothing false about their statement dumbass. The article said in an update that they didn't press charges but man I would have loved to have seen that trial.

 

[dphantom]

What a story. Sad.

 

[Captante]

Tragic story but very interesting watch.

Subscribed to the channel afterwards.

 

[Micrornd]

that is a very large quantity of mercury to dump into the water. Waster water treatment doesn't include mercury recovery does it?

Most don't, but in some areas it does, it's dependent on the consistent levels in the wastewater, there are set standards.
Unfortunately, random spikes in levels are allowed and ignored, treatment is only mandated if levels prove consistent (due to costs involved for recovery and disposal)

One of the most common methods (cheapest) is to pass the treated effluent through a holding pond of water hyacinths. They are floating plants whose roots absorb many types of "heavy metals".
First time I saw this was many years ago, on a private tour of the then newly improved support facilities at Disneyworld (Reedy Creek Improvement District).
I asked what they did with the "mature" plants and they said they were "harvested regularly and used for cattle feed"
Surprisingly, an anonymous phone call (tip) later in the week brought attention to that very practice by TV, state and federal agencies.
Supposedly, since then they have been incinerated properly.
BTW - They have also been caught shooting vultures (protected species) and burying 55 gal. drums of toxic waste, you'd be surprised how much is covered up for the sake of tourism at the "mouse house".

 

[PottedMeat]

BTW - They have also been caught shooting vultures (protected species) and burying 55 gal. drums of toxic waste, you'd be surprised how much is covered up for the sake of tourism at the "mouse house".

aww why kill vultures? they clean any corpse up in a day to a week. if there weren't any around here there would be piles of rotten squirrels, deer, raccoons, and armadillos on the sides of the roads

 

[renz20003]

Damn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ7M01jV058

Holy shit man, that's really sad... how ironic that she was in the field of chemical safety.

 

[skull]

When I was a kid, I had a Quicksilver game, and like any red-blooded American boy, I took it apart. The mercury dropped out and splashed all over the carpet. I never told anyone about it.

Now, 40 years later, I look back on that and wonder if mercury poisoning is the reason I'm so goofy

I did similar as a teenager took a thermostat mercury bulb apart and played with it. Put it in the back of my closet open and forgot about it til years later when I found the container and wondered where all the mercury went. Didn't find out until years after that mercury evaporates and its extra bad for you when you breath it in. Silly dilly dookie no wonder I'm an idiot.

Then theres the fact my dad used to let me melt hit his real lead soldier with a soldiering gun into puddles for hours in a small room when I was a lot younger. Add the two together and its no wonder I ain't quite right.