r/BeAmazed • u/himmokala • Dec 15 '24

Science Using red dye to demonstrate how Mercury cannot be absorbed by a towel

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u/Substantial-Low Dec 15 '24

That is really the difference between understanding a risk vs perceiving a risk. Liquid mercury is not especially dangerous. It will even pass through the digestive system if you ingest it.

It is dangerous when vaporized and inhaled. So more important than gloves would be a respirator.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '24

What? Then how come I have to cut down on seafood because of potential mercury poisoning?

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u/Substantial-Low Dec 16 '24

Great question.

The mercury in seafood is in the form of methylmercury. Completely different chemically than liquid mercury. Methylmercury is poisonous as fuck.

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '24

Damn, ok.

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u/Substantial-Low Dec 16 '24

Yeah man. Liquid mercury is Hg2, and methylmercury is CH3HgX, they behave really, really differently. Kind of like how you have sodium all up in your body, but if you toss metallic sodium in water it explodes. They are in completely different forms, with completely different chemical properties.

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u/Visible_Highlight772 Dec 19 '24

It's like: you eat NaCl every day.

But if you try to eat Na (Sodium) it will burn through you and you will die. It explodes after contacting water and can ignite contacting air.

And Chlorine was used as a chemical weapon in ww1