[Rockhounds] Toxic Minerals and Common Sense

[Mike Flannigan]

Yeah, we played with mercury in our bedrooms, and
sometimes accidentally dropped it into the carpet and lived
with it for years.  Right or wrong, they would clear out an
entire school nowadays if that happened.


Mike


On Fri, 10 Aug 2007, codeburner at gmail.com wrote:
>Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:54:57 -0400
>From: "J Bryan Kramer" <codeburner at gmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Toxic Minerals and Common Sense
>To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem
>        collectors"     <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
>        <e8cacd9a0708101654m5cd62c22v41ac7aa75180f4ad at mail.gmail.com>
>
>Well Minimata disease was caused by methyl-mercury which is very
>toxic. Inorganic insoluble mercury is much less so, after all,
>generations of school boys played with mercury drops and there are no
>accounts of piles of dead bodies outside of schools. Hatters are the
>classic occupational disease victims of disease caused by mercury but
>their exposure was long lasting and in high concentrations. They were
>also exposed to boiling solutions of mercuric nitrate, which is a
>soluble mercury compound.
>
>This isn't to say that you should expose yourself to mercury vapor.
>
>By like many things in the modern world, elemental mercury exposure
>hysteria is over hyped.
>
>BK