• Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Not long ago they didn’t care so much about that. He also talked about how they’d play with it with their bare hands. He’s not dead because mercury is only toxic when ingested.

      Edit: in retrospect, he is dead. I forgot that cancer got him a few years back and that high school was 30 years ago…

      • geissi@feddit.de
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        6 months ago

        mercury is only toxic when ingested

        Doesn’t it give off toxic vapors?

        • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          I’m not an expert, but from what little I remember: mercury doesn’t immediately kill you like other poisons. What it does do is build up in your body until it hits a tipping point and starts causing problems. Your body has no way to process or get rid of it. Which was why accumulations of it in seafood was a big deal because eat enough of it, even in tiny amounts over a long time, and it starts to mess you up. The amount of mercury that you would be exposed to by breathing near an open source would be minimal I imagine. Or something like that. Like I said. Not an expert. Better to just stay away from it entirely, I’m sure.

      • 𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        He’s not dead because he absorbed so much chemicals over the years it all cancelled out. Those tech room uni workers are supermutants. That’s why you are so scared of them instinctively when meeting one for the first time.