Mercury is a shiny, heavy, silver-colored metal. It is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. Because of its color and because it is liquid and can flow, Mercury is also sometimes called quicksilver or liquid silver. The chemical symbol for Mercury is Hg.
Mercury comes from the ground. It is mixed together with rocks and minerals. Mercury is almost always mixed with a mineral called Cinnabar. When Cinnabar is taken out of the ground (mined) and heated, the mercury is released as vapor, like steam from boiling water. The mercury vapor is collected and cooled. When the mercury is cooled it turns into a liquid, just like steam from boiling water collects on the inside lid of a pot and, as it cools, it turns into water droplets.
Mercury was first mined about 2,500 years ago (500 BC) Back then early civilizations like the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, and Chinese wanted gold and silver. The men, who experimented with mercury, from the time it was first mined and throughout the Middle Ages, were trying to turn mercury into silver or gold. These men were called Alchemist and they believed that all types of metal could be turned into silver or gold by heating, mixing and separating them. Through their experiments with mercury the Alchemists learned more about the metal. They soon learned that mercury is a liquid at room temperature and since many of the Alchemists were seen as sorcerers, it is certain they found some interesting uses for this unusual metal.
Mercury is toxic, which means it is poisonous to living things, including people. Mercury, like any spilled liquid, evaporates. Evaporation is when a liquid turns into a vapor and moves into the air..
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When mercury is in the air, people, dogs, cats and all other animals can breathe it in. When you breathe in or inhale mercury it can make you very sick. Mercury is toxic and it damages organs like the brain, liver and kidneys. As a matter of fact, the terms "Mad Hatter" and "Mad as a Hatter", come from the 19th century when mercury was used in the making of felt hats. |
The men who made the hats were called Hatters. The hatters inhaled the mercury they were using and it damaged their brains, causing them to act strange or "mad".
Mercury was once used in paints and in herbicides or weed killers. It also was used for different medical purposes such as antiseptic for cuts and scrapes and for treating some diseases. Because mercury is toxic, there has been a lot of effort made to reduce its use. Industries, particularly in North America, Europe and Japan have tried to find alternatives to using mercury.
Today, mercury is used in some household products and in some industries Power plants that produce electricity by burning coal release mercury into the air. While some manufacturers, hospitals, dental offices and schools produce waste that contains mercury. Mercury has many properties. Because mercury is a good conductor of electricity, which means electrical currents move through it easily, it is used it some electrical equipment. Many types of lights contain mercury, including fluorescent and neon lights.
Mercury expands (gets bigger) and contracts (gets smaller) with changes in temperature. When the temperature gets warmer, mercury expands a little for every degree the temperature rises. As the temperature cools, mercury contracts. Mercury expands and contracts uniformly. This means that every time the temperature goes up or down, the mercury expands or contracts the same amount for each degree the temperature changes.
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Because mercury expands and contracts uniformly, it is used in thermometers and thermostats (used to set the temperature for your home's furnace or air conditioner). These are some of the properties or characteristics of mercury. Mercury has other properties and it is the only metal that is a liquid at room temperature. It is very heavy (a little mercury weighs a lot) and it is toxic to living things. |
If waste that contains mercury is dumped into a municipal landfill or garbage dump, it seeps out and enters the environment. If mercury is released into the air through manufacturing or the making of electricity by burning coal, it is brought back to earth in the rain and snow. Once it is back on the ground, it moves through the environment and gets into living things more easily than just plain mercury.
For example, if mercury gets into a lake or river, there are very small organisms called bacteria that turn mercury into methylmercury. Methylmercury is worse than mercury, because it gets inside and builds up in living things. Once the bacteria in the lake change the mercury to methylmercury, fish absorb the methylmercury from the water as it passes over their gills and from the food that they eat. When bigger fish eat smaller fish, the methylmercury ends up in them. Since bigger fish eat a lot of smaller fish, they get more methylmercury in their bodies. If a bird or a person eats the bigger fish, they in turn get methylmercury in their body. Since birds that live by the water eat a lot of bigger fish, they get even more methylmercury in their bodies. People who eat a lot of fish also get more methylmercury in their bodies. |
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Since we now know that mercury is toxic and harmful to all living things. It is important that we all try to use products that don't contain mercury and to ensure that we properly dispose of any products that do contain mercury. Fluorescent lights, mercury thermometers and thermostats should be taken to a Household Hazardous Waste depot where they can be properly handled and some of the material recycled. |
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| Source: Envrronment Canada |  |
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