On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 15:34:36 -0400, Mike Coslo wrote:

Inhaling the fumes is another thing entirely. Mercurey poisoning has
been known about for a long time now. Daggureotypists in the early
1800's often suffered from mercury poisoning as they purposely fumed the
image plates to develop the images, producing a silver amalgam on the
surface in accordance with how much it had been exposed to light. A
beautiful but deadly process.

The feltmaking process used to use mercury as a preservative, and the
saying "mad as a hatter" was coined for a reason.

And yet we still have people today that think that caution in handling
mercury is some kind of "liberal" plot or something.

Over time, it is a self-correcting problem.

Holding it in your hands is more of an issue if
A) you have some sort of wound, and some could contact your
bloodstream, or more likely
B) if you do not _thoroughly_ clean it off your hands before touching
food, rubbing your eyes, smoking a ciggie, etc.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom