If mercury is so toxic, then why was it ok for people to handle it growing up?

Question

I remember rolling the globs in my hands and seeing others doing it. Yeah, we were told it was hazardous but apparantly not so much that we couldnt handle it? Now if its spilled somewhere THE ENTIRE AREA has to be evacuated. Is this just paranoia?!

Answer 1

I think it is paranoia. We are worrying about things that are such minor problems today that it just seems crazy to me. People are just overreacting way too much. Some hazard kills 1 person out of 10 million and we have to have a big government plan to eliminate the problem! Meanwhile 50,000 people a year die in car accidents and people do all sorts of dangerous things for fun, like climb mountains and make parachute jumps and so on. We have lost perspective.

Answer 2

It wasn't OK.  But handling it, if you don't spill it, is less dangerous than a spill.  

Mercury is a slow acting poison.  The problem if you spill some is that it will sit there and vaporize very slowly, exposing you to mercury fumes over a long time.  If you handle some, and get it all back into the bottle, the exposure is very short and the hazard is much less.

Still, best to keep away from the stuff.  I guarantee you teachers don't play with it in schools any more.

Answer 3

The toxicity of mercury has remained constant over time.  Early on mercury was a curiosity and was commonly used to recover gold.  When I was young we used to rub coins with mercury to make them shiny.  (Hours later they would oxidize and become dull.).  I doubt that the tiny amount I contacted had any significant effect on me.

Mercury is potentially dangerous and should be handled carefully.  I think the current reaction when mercury is spilled in tiny amounts is lawyer driven:  A lot of people now freak out over ANYTHING toxic and lawyers have taken advantage of this.  The net result is if some mercury is spilled in science class the the school is evacuated and the hazmat guys in white suits are called in to take care of the problem.  From a "science" standpoint this is an overreaction.  From a legal standpoint it is not and is driven by paranoia.  That is, the fear of a lawsuit for not doing enough to prevent contact with a known toxin.

But then, is it paranoia if the lawyers really are after you?

Answer 4

The Mercury is not so hazardous it is the vapors. It is used in processing Gold . The small gold dust is mix with Mercury and everything that is not gold will float . Then with an accelytene torch the Mercury is evaporated off thus purifying the gold . It is just that the people breathing the vapor go crazy that counts.

Answer 5

It is like a lot of other things concerning toxic chemicals and agents:  back then the governmental agencies did not deem them to be that dangerous to the general public.

There is now a very long list of toxic substances like mercury that were once commonly handled every day, but now are too dangerous for the common person to handle.

Answer 6

Paranoia? Yes, partially. But you have a pretty decent chance of developing cancer and other bad things from doing that.