mercury absorption

[shorei]

How easy does mercury from a thermometer absorb into your skin?  I have a friend who touched it a month ago and put it into thew garbage. Is she at risk of mercury poisoning?

[scarwobbler]

I can remember chemistry classes in the 1970s.  People would often play with mercury, pick it up, chuck it around, and to my knowledge come to no harm.  Most of us have mercury in our teeth, and we don't worry about it - though there is a view that there are long-term health problems associated with amalgam.  Those of us with amalgam fillings are absorbing mercury into our body every day, and rates of absorbtion are particlarly high when fillings are either put in or taken out.  And some ointments for skin ailments contain mercury.  So a one-off touching of mercury shouldn't be anything to worry about.  However from an environmental point of view your friend shouldn't have thrown the mercury out with the garbage.  It should have been put in a sealed container, and arrangements should have been made for its special disposal.  Also mercury lets off its vapours very slowly, which can be a problem when it gets lost under floorboards, or gets into carpets.  Though having said that, the amount of mercury in a thermometer is pretty tiny.  For added safety, if all the Mercury hadn't been gathered, the room where the thermometer was broken should be dusted with sulphur.  Over time the sulphur will combine with the Mercury, so reducing its volatility.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

I don't have much specific knowledge to pass on, but mercury posioning generally comes from chronic inhalation rather than touching of the skin.  I don't think that a single exposure (if there was any to the actual mecury) is likely to be a problem.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff