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

[Armando Afonso]

I remember of,  when I visited Almaden in the 80s, to be invited to try to 
plunge my arm into a big tub full of a few tons of mercury.
It was very fun, due to the extreme density of the liquid.
All around in the room, there were hundreds of iron bottles full the metal, 
and on the ground outside there were flakes of it everywhere. Like water 
after the rain!
The staff was extremelly nice with me, and I was presented with lots of 
specimens of cinnaber with native mercury.
The mines are at the edge of a relativelly big town, and this since the 
roman period.
By now, judging by  this histeria around the toxicity of the ore, there 
should be no life there, no?
Excuse me the triclinic english.
Armando Afonso (Portugal)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J Bryan Kramer" <codeburner at gmail.com>
To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors" 
<rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 4:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] How Toxic is Cinnabar? (Mercury sulfied)


>I saw a news report a few days ago about them finding some fellow dead on
> the floor of his home, and the autopsy determined he died from drink too
> much water.
>
> I can also recall that kids used to play with mercury and there were no
> bodies found around the activity. Methyl mercury is highly toxic, 
> elemental
> mercury is so only on extended contact.
>
> BK
>
> On Feb 2, 2008 11:10 AM, Jim Daly <sauktown1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> THanks, Kay. You expressed the situation better than I could.
>>  Your opening comment about Dihydrogen Oxide reminds me of a
>> tongue-in-cheek MSDS for Oxygen, written by Isaac Asimov. I can't 
>> remember
>> it all (it was a LONG time ago), but it said in part: "Extremely toxic in
>> concentrated form. Even at 20% concentration, few survive exposure for 
>> more
>> than a century".
>>  Jim
>>
>> Kay Davis <kaydavis at estrie.qc.ca> wrote:
>>  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.
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------
>> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try 
>> it
>> now.
>>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> "I know I shall be castigated by a large group of people today, but I
> was trained to assume that art related to the elusive quality of beauty 
> and
> that the purpose of art was concerned with the elevation of the spirit"
> Ansel Adams
>
>
> J Bryan Kramer
> North Florida, USA
> photos at:
> http://pbase.com/photoburner
>
>
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