mercury pollution
 

A photo edited to image a horror fish. Well, this is the Interwebb

maybe you've been exposed to a neuro-toxin, milty?

Oh, absolutely. MG, I'm a child of the 40's and 50's. Rolled mercury in my hand in elementary school as we passed it around. In the 50's we couldn't take a deep breath in the summer due to the Willmington refinerys a few miles west.

My folks smoked so many cigarettes the I could poke a hole in the horizontal layer of smoke in the living room. That's no joke, that was actually the case as it was a game.

Western Exterminator came once a month a sprayed DDT in the closets for moths and they used something before Malathion on the perimeter. I ate lead based painted wood, dirt and chewed anything that you could chew.

I'll probably die before I finish this post. I' havin troubel as it iz.

Didn't you also make pennies look like dimes by rubbing mercury onto them with your fingers? Where did we get that mercury? How did we ever make it this far? All of us who touched, inhaled, ate, & absorbed all those things shouldn't be here. Maybe the fish will have it even worse.

Someone correct me if I am wrong. But I understand that the danger of pure metallic mercury is inhalation of elementary mercury vapors. And to be damaging to you health the mercury vapor inhalation has to be over an extended amount of time. That is why it is less dangerous to handle metallic mercury for a relatively short time. It is quite a different story if you ingest mercury as part of another chemical compound as when you eat ocean fish.

That's right. It is the so-called organic mercury that is really toxic, although it appears some of the posters above have been exposed to that also.

That does not work. It has to be a silver coin for the Mercury to attach to. It worked on dimes and quarters back when there was silver in them. Never on a penny.

It will also destroy a gold ring. Mercury will dissolve gold.

The Air Force base would fog the streets with DDT. All the kids would ride bikes in the cloud of DDT because it was cool.

I loved playing with lead shot when I was a kid.

Did they change the photo? When I click the link there is a picture of fish. About 5 of them as I count. I dunno, maybe the mercury got to one of us.

Yer all zombies. Gotta be. Yer dead and you don't even know it.

No way could any of you still be alive after all that exposure according to those who know better.
next thing ya know you'll be telling us you actually drank water out of a garden hose instead of a sparkletts bottle.


Now go back to your graves and behave yourselves like good little zombies.
Scat. Skedaddle. Scoot.

I've seen the gold/mercury thing lots at work, S. America, the local gold miners would carry their 100 pound sack of gold bearing Saporlite (granite that has turned to clay from weathering over millions of years, gold will actually migrate through this) to the only water hole around due to the dry season, they'd pan their material and get it to the black sand and gold, its tough to separate the sand from the gold, both are the same weight so they use Mercury, it separates the gold, then they put the mercury in a handkerchief and wring as much of the mercury through the hanky as possible, the gold stays in the hanky, the hanky is then burned to get rid of the material and the left over mercury. The miners (about 80% of the people in the area, women and kids older than 7-8 too) stood or sat in that water (40-50 people at a time) it was laced with mercury and was also their bathing, drinking and cooking water. They were also breathing the smoke from the burnt hanky, not on purpose but that was payday so they were close and breathing the smoke for sure. It was rare to see a person over 45, they looked 70 but everyone dies young in that environment.

DDT was banned because it worked too good, its been proven that DDT does not give you cancer. Its estimated that over 50 million people have died since DDT was banned, its a conspiracy like the lone gunman and the magic bullet. They told us, so it has to be true, right, eh?

Finn

We have "Gold Amalgamation Units" here at work to trap mercury vapor. Lots and lots of gold in them. You can have the spent ones if you like. For free! Bring your own lead underwear. ;)

This is news to who?

Did someone actually get paid to 'discover' this?

I loved the smell of gasoline as a kid...back when gas smelled like gas.
I also loved the smell of auto exhaust.
I'm still here.

Me too Don, but don't tempt science. One test result can change your perspective on that in an instant and i'm sure has for many people.

Folks along the Mississippi River eat plenty of catfish, which is a bottom-feeding fish. Probably has plenty of organic mercury.

I never cared for catfish, though. Perch and bass for me. :)

__

DDT kills our national bird. But then only a liberal would care about national symbols.

Where do you think "Mad as a Hatter" came from?

So what can be done?

Stop burning coal and don't eat fish until the mercury levels go back to normal. And keep shipping our natural gas to China.

Someone recently told me that Salmon was highest in mercury, including outside of the Great Lakes which is naturally high.

I'll have to do more reading on this.

Sorry for the mistake about coating the penny with mercury. It's been over 60 years, so it must have been dimes. I almost never got to touch a quarter. It could be coating coins wasn't dangerous, but we used to be able to get it on an occasional basis, and it could have been carried into the air when we cleaned out hands or did other things with it. I'm no expert and do believe it has gotten into the food chain to represent a danger to us & other animals, especially fish.

DDT clouds are not that dangerous to human beings. It is the accumulation of DDT in the animal food chain that is the great danger, especially for birds like Pelicans. DDT in their food chain will cause eggshells to be so thin that the breeding bird will crush them. So, no more Pelicans and the like. I think that was one of the main reasons why DDT was banned in the US and other countries. I also remember in the sixties being exposed to daily DDT cloudings from trucks in an Italian resort. That was supposed to control the mosquiito population then.

Salmon should not be highest in mercury, tho I'd avoid farmed salmon

Tuna and other fish that eat high on the food chain will be high, as mercury bioaccumulates.

The findings re photo-oxidation of methyl-mercury are interesting.

A Silent Spring was about bald eagles but I assume all birds would be similarly affected.