[Noisebridge-discuss] mercury on the table?

Mike Ashmore motomike at gmail.com
Thu Jun 25 18:37:25 UTC 2009


Not that there isn't danger, but I'm pretty sure the full hazmat
response mandated by the EPA is based on the fact that there's no "safe"
level of mercury exposure in a similar sense to there being no "safe"
level of exposure to cigarette smoke. Let's not let ass-covering
supersede rationality.

Hg is nasty stuff, make no mistake, and accumulates in your body, so
that's a large part of why any exposure is considered bad. But prior to
the 20th century it wasn't uncommon for syphillis sufferers to apply it
topically, via "vapor baths" (!), or to actually drink the stuff
outright as a primitive treatment. It apparently didn't hasten their
demise *too* much.

Just my little contrarian $0.02 ...
-Mike

On Thu, 2009-06-25 at 11:00 -0700, d p chang wrote:
> John Magolske <listmail at b79.net> writes:
> 
> > * Christie Dudley <longobord at gmail.com> [090624 19:57]:
> >> On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 4:40 PM, Sai Emrys <noisebridge at saizai.com> wrote:
> >> > A tiny bead of mercury still calls for full evac and hazardous
> >> > materials handling. Mercury vapor is serious shit.
> >> >
> >> This is indeed true, but what was found was significantly more than
> >> a tiny bead, 
> >
> > Was anything done with this mercury? It was found...but then what?
> 
> i think we scared it away w/ all the scary talk :-)
> 
> anyway, until this discussion (and glancing at the hazmat pdf), i never
> had any idea of the toxicity levels. i have a dim memory of high school
> chem teachers having jars of the stuff laying around and watching a
> 'bead' roll around the top of the lab bench proded by a pen/pencil.
> 
> \p
> ---
> Men seek out retreats for themselves in the country, by the seaside, on
> the moutains... But all this is unphilosophical to the last
> degree... when thou canst at a moment's notice retire into thyself.
> 		- Marcus Aelius Aurelius
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