So as I was browsing YouTube, a video popped up about a professor’s death due to mercury poisoning after she accidentally spilled two drops at the back of her latex gloves (search about Karen Wetterhahn). Now I wonder if there’s a different “mercury” in mercury thermometers. If not, why am I still alive? Maybe the dosage?
Please, kids, do not try this at home.
See, when I was a kid, I broke a mercury thermometer at home. Tiny silver spheres that looked like pendulum balls spilled on the floor. As a curious kid who loved cute things, that including tiny silver spheres, I touched one. I could vividly remember that it bounced on my point finger, like how gelatine bounces when I touch it.
I called my mom and told her about the incident. I remember that she told me not to touch it, so I did not tell her that I did (sorry, Ma). I forgot about the rest, except that I swept everything using a walis tambo and dumped it on a trash can. Thinking about it now, I could only question myself what the hell was I thinking that time (of course, I was a kid, and this is a lesson why you, grade three students, must listen to your science teachers).
To all knowledgeable people out there, does mercury really bounce? What are those tiny silver spheres? Were those really mercury? Does my body need to absorb them before something severe happens to my brain? So is this why I am still alive?
Asking for myself. Thanks.
Yes.
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