PINK DISEASE

WHAT IS MERCURY POISONING?

 

You don't have to look up a medical dictionary to discover just how poisonous mercury is.  Most articles about mercury, the element, will tell you that:

 

·          Mercury has the symbol, Hg, atomic No. 80, atomic weight 200.59 and is a silvery white metallic element that is a liquid at room temperature.  It is mainly found in the natural environment as cinnabar ore and it alloys easily with other metals;

 

·          Both organic and inorganic mercury are dangerous but have many important uses,  that methyl mercury is a lethal pollutant found in rivers and lakes, that mercury is a volatile element which vapourizes easily into an odourless and colourless gas and dangerous levels of mercury vapour can occur rapidly; and

 

·          Mercury is very, very toxic and must be handled with extreme care.

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