[Rockhounds] How Toxic is Cinnabar? (Mercury sulfied)

[Kay Davis]

Good Morning,

   People tend to forget that anything will kill you if the conditions are
right... even DiHydrogen Oxide, if you consume too much of it in a too short
period of time.

Saying Cyanide is toxic... well by the same logic we should say carbon is
toxic too, since after all if Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) (Which is what most
people think of when they say cyanide) gives such a bad name to cyanide (CN)
then by extension both Carbon and Nitrogen are toxic as hell...  if anyone
tries to disagree go breath an atmosphere of pure nitrogen for 5 minutes
then write me back... <Grin>

One also has to look at concentration and exposure time (And often exposure
temperature as well, although we assume for humans it's 37C and forget to
mention it) of any chemical to determine if there is a risk or not. 

Also one can not say Mercury Sulfide and Metallic Mercury and Methyl Mercury
and Silver - Mercury amalgam have the same level of risk or toxicity, which
is what the "Environmentalist" contingent tends to try to do.

Funny how the pendulum swings ... from Radium salts and the associated
radioactivity being a health aid, to any radioactivity being unimaginably
dangerous and nuclear reactors being the spawn of satin in the 70's to today
where almost everyone goes and buys a radioactive source to put in their
house and reactors are coming back into favor......

Sorry for the ramble... 
Kay



Rik Said > I agree completely, Axel, I know only one case of someone who got
sick from metallic mercury, and  that was the late
Professor Médard Herman (Antwerp University), who had worked for more than
20 years in a lab in Kinshasa, where they
discovered afterwards that under the wooden floor he worked on day after day
there was about 20-30 kg mercury floating
around. So his has been exposed during 20-30 years to an atmosphere totally
saturated with mercury.