Touching mercury

Mercury is a very toxic or poisonous substance that people can be exposed to in several ways. If it is swallowed, like from a broken thermometer, it mostly passes through your body and very little is absorbed. If you touch it, a small amount may pass through your skin, but not usually enough to harm you.

Mercury does not absorb through your skin instantly. Elemental mercury does absorb through your skin, but at a very slow pace (very slowly). As long as you don't expose your skin to the metal too much and you wash your hands after then you would be fine. If any mercury did absorb through your skin then the amount will be so small then you would urinate it out, leaving no mercury in your body and meaning it won't build up to harmful amounts. In fact you could absorb more mercury by eating a can of tuna. I'm not trying to build up a false sense of safety with this material, as it's not something you should have out all the time. If you kept exposing yourself every day even small amounts could build to harmful amounts in the body, while if you did it a couple of times a month then it won't build up. And as for the vapor, when the mercury is at room temperature then the evaporation rate is only 0.063 ml per hour per cm squared of surface area exposed of mercury.

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