80. WHAT DOES MERCURY DO? (English version)

Hi! As I saw that I have English-speaking readers, I'll try to translate an article. My English level is not perfect so be patient please. I hope you like it and thanks for reading me!

To Paz Molina.

Besides being the closer planet to the “big star” and a roman god, Mercury is a chemical element. We don’t know which was first but we think this is the order: at first the god, then the planet recieved the god’s name and finally the element recieved the planet’s name.

As you see, they haven’t anything in common with the element’s name. The reason is that years ago (too many years ago) its name used to be Hidrargirio. This name proceed from latin hydrargyrum, which in turn proceed from greek hydrargyros (hydros=water y argyros=silver).

Greeks chose very well the name because mercury is the only liquid and silvery metal... is like a liquid mirror. You surely know it as "the most dense metal", which is true: is so dense that Lead can float on its surface.

 

This element is extremly dangerous. When we work in the lab we have biosafety standards in case that a mercury thermometer breaks. If this happen we have to clean the area avoiding inhale the mercury vapors. If we don't do this, we can get sick and we have to drink a lot of milk (if you are intrested, in a future post I can explain you why we have to drink milk). 

But... Which are the damages that mercury does to our body?

Damages depend on the state in which the mercury is found. They also depend on the type of exposition: it can be an acute exposition (when you expose a short time to a huge concentration of Hg) or a chronic exposition (when you expose to low concentrations of Hg many times).

Some of the things that can happen are:

• If we inhale vapors metallic Hg (if we breathe mercury): we can get pneumonitis, fever, cough, chest pain and other lung symptoms.
• If we eat inorganic Hg (if a salt of mercury reachs our mouth): we can have gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and bloody diarrhea. If the poisoning is chronic it can be observerd diarrhea, stomatitis, kidney damage, anemia and peripherial neuritis.
• If we intoxicated with organic Hg: we can have neurological sympyoms such as ataxia, tremor and dysarthria. If the poisoning is severe can cause blindness, coma and death.

I'm going to talk with less property so you can understand me: savoring or breathing mercury is really bad for your health because this element affect your brain, your lungs, your liver and your kidneys.

But don't be afraid, is really rare being in contact with mercury. A regular person only can do it if his house's thermometer breaks (and he only use it a few times per year). On the other hand, there are a group of people that use mercury daily at work, wich increases the danger. Some of these groups are:

1. PHYSICISTS: they use mercury thermometers, mercury barometers and  mercury manometers.
2. CHEMISTS: they use mercury thermometers, mercury barometers and  mercury manometers. They also use mercury as a reactive for they experiments.
3. AGRICULTURISTS: they use fertilizers and sprays with mercury.

So Paz, don't worry anymore about what does mercury do and let breaking thermometers to play with mercury balls.