Mercury the wonder metal...

The amateur should stay away from handling mercury. It also gives off vapors that are readily absorbed thru the skin to be collected in fatty tissue where it´ll stay forever. You can´t sweat it off or piss it off. It´ll attach to synapses and block nerve impulses and cause uncontrollable shaking. When industrial quantities are dumped in water ecosystems it will be picked up in the food chain. Eating fish tainted with mercury is what doomed the Minamata folk of Japan back in the 70´s, giving birth to a new patholoy and new medical term Minamata Disease. The ensuing birth defects caused by the metal shocked and horrorized the world.

Mercury gave rise the the term 'Mad as a Hatter' as it was used in the millinery trade, causing serious mental health problems for the skilled hat makers. It was well known as early as the mid 1800's, and is probably one of the first recognised industrial diseases.

Lewis Carrol had nothing to do with it!

Mercury is a fearsome beast best left to those who must deal with it. It is most difficult to contain and maintain acceptable concentration in air where used in quantity. Welded stainless steel pans leak, water covers don't prevent Hg evaporation. Flange joints leak.

Store it in iron/steel flasks, or seal it in glass as in thermometers.

Since alloys must of necessity be processed at above ambient temperatures it is not likely to be used unless absolutely necessary.

So why do they still use it in fillings, if it's so dangerous?

So if you have to work with it and sniffers don't detect any vapor are you still being exposed?

Asbestos was also a "wonder material". Great insulator, high temperature resistance, easy to apply.

"The amateur should stay away from handling mercury."

"Causing serious mental health problems, recognized industrial diseases."

"Mercury is a fearsome beast best left to those who must deal with it."

"So why do they still use it in fillings, if it's so dangerous?"

Is the usage of Mercury completely banned, as that of Asbestos?

Though the alternates are getting popular, Mercury is still found here and there.

Many fluorescent tube lights contains Mercury vapor. A thermometer or blood pressure monitor breaks, what do we do?

A reasonable knowledge and awareness is required when we are forced to handle it (or dispose it).

I started my career in a Chloro Alkali plant, which used Mercury cells for electrolyses. Tons of Mercury was in use. Most of us spend many years for understanding the ill effects of this wonderful metal. For that very reason, I switched to petrochemical industry after 10 years of service. In refineries, well, H₂S was scaring me…

Statistics say, "People dying of road accidents are much more than deaths caused by Asbestos".

Getting back to my primary question, "Is Mercury used as an alloying element?"

yesyen:

I think the dangers of METALLIC mercury may be overrated. As a nerdish youth, I always had a little bottle of it around the workbench and I used to coat coins and other metallic objects with it. That took a lot of exposure, rubbing it in with my fingers, because it didn't wet the copper or silver very readily. I played with it, dropped it on the floor and watched it scatter and generally found it very entertaining. In school, we made mercury barometers in class. I didn't seem to have serious shaking problems afterward in my many years of pistol target shooting. Now I'm 75 years old and, even though I AM mad as a hatter, I still have everyone fooled.

Metallic mercury was also a byproduct of firing cartridges primed by fulminate of mercury. It ruined the brass for reloading by absorption of the mercury and, I'm sure, exposed millions of shooters to the fumes. I've never heard of health problems from being on the shooting end of that activity.

DickL

Many recall their trilling memories of playing with this metal!

One such play was: adding few drops of Mercury to molten Aluminum. This should be 30 years ago when was around mid twenties. Very think of this, I shiver even now. There should have been spontaneous Hg vapor all around! But now, I never allowed my son to have and play with it.

Back to the story of Aluminum with Hg: It was a mould of about 50 grams. This ingot started sweating ash profoundly. The ingot got reduced to huge fine ask almost completely. My chemist colleagues explained, this could be fast generation of Aluminum oxide and Hg acts as catalyst for the fast reaction. I made many molds of this kind and wondered what could be done with these?

Using this ingot and carbon as electrodes and water (slightly acidic) gave an EMF of 1.2V, where as just pure Aluminum gave only 0.4/0.5V. Well, no big purpose, just a play at that age.

Use of Hg in Dental Work is passe. HgAg amalgams fillings are no longer used. Old amalgam fillings are removed for two reasons, potential poisoning of the host and old amalgam filling often hide defects and incipient problems. The dental professionals recommend removal, resurfacing cavity, and replacing with a UV cured synthetic filling material.

Any way you look at it Hg is nasty stuff to be avoided except as absolutely necessary.

Hi SS,

I agree with you. However according to Wiki "The ADA claims that dental amalgam is safe since it has been used for over 160 years by now".

When I was a small child in the 1940's, Hg was readily available to most anyone. I have no idea where my uncle got it, but we kids would rub coins (nickels and dimes) with it. They would be absolutely gorgeous. After a day or so the sheen would have gone away though. We thought nothing about pouring some in our palms and watching the Hg balls roll around. Ouch! What ignorance.

Hopefully, we didn't do it often enough to have lasting effect. If so, I think I would have known by now.

-John

Hey JJ: I too had a small vial of Hg which gradually decreased in quantity over the years. It also accumulated a lot of dust/dirt to dull the silver gloss in the vial.

The Wiki and ADA notwithstanding, I'm pleased to be rid of the many such fillings, most of which would have led to other problems. Modern materials should keep everything solid as long as I'm around this vale of tears.

IMHO Wiki is NOT all that authoritative, and the article is labeled as being a controversy. SS

Lengendary master chess player Bobby Fisher once had his fillings removed though for a different reason. He thought that becuase we are constantly bombarded with electromagnetic waves the metal fillings will resonate like an antenna and impair his concentration. Has anyone heard about or experienced this crazy effect?