Why do people freak out about mercury nowadays?

Question

When I was a kid we played with mercury in our hands with no ill effects. The vapors are dangerous of course if it's heated, and long term constant exposure is unhealthy as well, but they act like it's plutonium or cyanide or something nowadays and it's NOT that dangerous! I read where some was spilled in a home and they put the residents out and brought in a HazMat crew. That's crazy! Where is this coming from?

Answer 1

Mercury has been proven to be toxic and has a drug-like effect in large quantities

have you ever heard of a "Mad Hatter"?

look up some of this stuff

Answer 2

Mercury cannot be removed from the body and accumulates in tissues, so any exposure should be limited.  And relatively small amounts can cause severe neurological problems and death.  The story of Karen Wetterhahn is well known in scientific circles.  She was a chemist at Dartmouth specializing in heavy metal toxicity and got a small amount on her latex glove one day.  This was enough to eventually cause tremors, tingling and other neurological symptoms, and eventually death.  Mercury can leech through latex and standard lab safety gear is thus not sufficient to protect oneself.  Mercury doesn't only pose a threat to humans when the handle it initially, but disposing of it is a problem.  Methylmercury that gets into the waterways accumulates in fish—who eat algae and smaller fish and absorb some from the surroundings—and this accumulation can lead to toxic effects in humans.  There was a study not long ago showing that many popular restaurants in New York City served fish with toxic levels of mercury.

The idea is to limit exposure as much as possible.  It's safer not to handle it at all than to take the risk.  Each small exposure adds to the mercury accumulated in tissues, and presents a new opportunity for some to be released into the environment.  

Answer 3

IDK I used to play with it to it was fun! I think your just not supossed to eat it .

Answer 4

how do you know its not that dangerous?

Answer 5

cause no body cares about venus or mars