Visualization of Mercury vapors in UV light

[Donatello97]

So....Are LCD HDTV's and computer monitors even safe to use considering they contain Mercury in their back lights? Are you being exposed to mercury by having them on, weather you're watching a movie, playing a game ect ect? I can't seem to get a straight answer on this.

[yazidE020991]

thats kill you,now you have mercuri in your head

[nickitas87]

looool,can i use black light lamps????

[DUHFUNKIEPURPLEHIPPO]

no me gusta things i cant see

[GoatseObama]

science you scary

[smellyfistoffury]

WITCHCRAFT!

[LatestUFOSightings]

All that theory is bullshit. In real life I know NO PERSON who has had any problem from playing with mercury. It's some old wives tale as "not swallowing gum". I swallow gum all the time and I have no problems. My mom played with mercury as a kid and not a thing happened.

[muellerbones]

@LatestUFOSightings Funny, my chem teacher in high school used to talk about playing with mercury when he was a kid, too. Half his face was partially paralyzed.

[squidwardDK]

@LatestUFOSightings Mercury doesn't kill you, but gives long-term neurological problems. It may even pass to the fetus and make the offspring (you) stupid.

[mka6585]

wow...i cant believe we did experiments with mercury in elementary school. All they said was keep your gloves on....

[nivek52]

would this not cause thermometers to presurise and crack ?

[nickm6]

@nivek52 I don't see why it would its enclosed in pretty thick glass. Ask yourself this does the mercury expanding with heat cause the thermometers to presurise and crack?

[bwilbur2]

Interesting, Mercury interacts with UV light at the same wavelength that DNA does.

[mipesco1]

@squidwardDK My guess is the video is in a fumehood ( a cupboard that sucks in air). So the flow of air is drawing the Hg vapours up

[HeatVisionPaolo]

I'm calling bullshit, I didn't see no such vapors only some lame ass shadow.

[IdeasWorthSharing87]

this bitch at menards looked at me like i was stupid when i asked her if they had CFL disposal at the store. I watched her act bitchy, grab them, throw and break them in the normal trash. Whatever society. Its not my fault.

[333irani333]

let me smoke that shit

[darotor]

Freddie Mercury is just a dangerous at room temperature.

[woodsprout]

@darotor

♫ ♪ ...that's why they call him Mr. Fahrenheit ... ♪ ♫

[MegaLinkification]

Apparently the Mad Hatter disliked this video

[almcken]

brb gotta go smash some mercury filled bulbs

[twitchrdz956]

My plan is coming together...yeesssss.



[fashionista16]

Don't breathe this.

[aegisgfx]

I definitely broke a thermometer when I was a kid and remember playing with the silver stuff, what about that might have affected me then or now?

[MrEphesians511]

...and THIS is what is in EVERY "GREEN" (so-called) new light bulb that the U.S. Government is FORCING US TO START USING...

[iansull]

@MrEphesians511 light bulbs are airtight. do you have issues with fluorescent lights? because breaking one and inhaling its contents would be unwise as well.

[HurrayForMountains]

@MrEphesians511 Chill out, slut.

[redbaron671]

Woah no hand protection?

[zlogil]

I think vapor goes up because this laboratory obviously have to have some sort of ventilation.

[elhockey1]

<3 science

[Sepharite]

So what happens if you breathe that?

[1destroyer5x]

@Sepharite You contract mercury poisoning which leads to brain damage, and ultimately death.

[kefka3]

shouldn't this person seriously be wearing gloves?

[tony333341]

how in the fuck did you get that much mercury?

[eboundee]

Hg Mercury!!

[Polopalapop]

Question: Are we seeing the shadow of the smoke, or the smoke itself, in the video?

[catch878able]

@Polopalapop We are seeing the UV shadow of the mercury vapor on a luminescent screen.

[harrytuttle777]

When I was in school kids used to carry bottles of mercury into class for show and tell. Today this would get the kid arrested and the school evacuated. It is amazing how we all survived.

[DeltaCommando52]

So whats it evaporating?

[WakeUpSleepIsDeath]

The same happens with dental amalgam fillings, which contain 52% mercury and one is drinking something warm the vapor increases. Then bacteria and fungus in the body methylate it (Hg => Hg-CH3) and it passes easily the Blood-brain barrier and if one gets older one gets Alzheimer disease or other things and wonders where why this happens. Check out "Minamata disease" and "Karen Wetterhahn". ADHD is also causes by mercury, like approx. 400 other diseases could be theoretically caused by mercury.

[squidwardDK]

Why does the vapour rise? The density of Hg vapour should be 7 times more than air, so why don't the vapours fall downwards? Several people asked this question to the "smoking tooth" video. (Most critical people claim it is just water vapour but I don't belive that.) I am not a chemist or physicist, but am curious to get an explanation.

[LNMagic]

@squidwardDK Some fluids mix freely, even if their densities are different. It's similar to the way many solids that are heavier than water (sugar and salt) can dissolve in water without undergoing a chemical reaction. Also, gases tend to mix. The vapor was clearly flowing towards the right, so that means that there is some airflow in that direction. Any flow with gases is likely to overcome the relative differences when the temperatures are the same - dissimilar temps don't mix as well.

[justinromine]

@squidwardDK Ventilation fan maybe?

[BagginsX]

@squidwardDK Chances are this is being filmed in a laboratory fume hood, where it would be safe do so since the fans suck the vapor up (as you see in the video).

[thetoddsquaD]

@squidwardDK My degree is not in chemistry, but I would suggest that gases want to move away from the higher concentrations (as in the liquid form), and are advected/convected due to ambient wind movements. I would refer you to Boyle's law of gases, avagadro's law, entropy, and the Guy-Lussac Law. These laws have nothing to do with gravity, and therefore would explain the expansion and movement of the Hg vapor seen here

[Glenners]

@squidwardDK Probably because the experiment is being done in a fume hood

[4fifty8]

@squidwardDK I believe there is a draft in the room or a fan that's moving the vapour. at the beginning it moves downward but then gets stirred up.

[squidwardDK]

@squidwardDK Thanks for replies. Yes, there is clearly an air flow and it must be under a fume hood, would be stupid otherwise. Also, gases are volatile to any air flow (I guess this is what @LNMagic explains?)

@WakeUpSleepIsDeath Yes, only very little of ingested metallic mercury is absorbed in by the body, while 80 percent of inhaled mercury vapour is absorbed. Mouth and gut bacteria and fungi can both methylate and demethylate mercury. Thus a cycle of excretion and reabsorption can go on.

[voltamp]

@squidwardDK This is a famous old classroom demonstration. The mercury vapor is not pure. It mixes with air at a very low concentration, and so does not significantly change the density of the air. The dilute mercury vapor is visible because it is such a strong UV absorber. In fact, the UV lamp is probably a mercury discharge lamp, and therefore gives off the exact UV wavelengths that mercury vapor absorbs.

Liquid mercury lasts for years. If the evaporation were fast that would not be so.

[phillipdogyface]

@squidwardDK well planes are certainly more denser than air but they still fly with the wind... maybe the mercury is just hitching a ride

[iasedu]

@squidwardDK Let me try to explain.. Even though the vapours seem to be quite intense in this video, the actual amount of Hg molecules is very small. Single Hg molecules detach from the liquid as is carried by air currents. It's a bit like dissolving a spoon of salt at the bottom of a pool, the NaCl has twice the density as H2O, but the dissolve salt with easily flow upwards from any current. Also, a saturated Hg vapour only has a slightly higher density than air itself (very few atoms).

[iasedu]

@squidwardDK Also, the vapour pressure of mercury is 1800 times smaller than the vapour pressure of water. So if it takes 8 hours for 1 dl of water to vaporize completely at 25 celsius, it would take 600 days for the 1 dl of mercury to vaporize completely. That's an exposure of 1.929 nanoliter per second, and how much of that actually gets into your nose? 1%? 10%? .. That's why mercury is pretty safe to handle, there's no mechanism for the mercury to enter the body.

[squidwardDK]

@iasedu Thanks. But any calculation is useless if based on unknown factors. Accurate figures are needed. It is well-known that people have become sick with mercury poisoning during the course of weeks after breaking a mercury thermometer on a carpet floor, which is difficult to clean up. According to Wikipedia, a fever thermometer contains 0.5 to 3 g of mercury. Also, the vapour from amalgam fillings is inhaled all the time (and possibly absorbed through other routes aswell).

[squidwardDK]

@iasedu Sorry if I misunderstand you, but I read your comment as exemplifying. Given your vapour pressure figure is correct, however, it still releases a substantial amount of Hg. 1.9 nanoliter is 27 microgram Hg per second.

[squidwardDK]

@iasedu 1 dl of Hg is a lot, but say 15 ml (one tablespoon) would release 4 microgram per second. Playing with mercury for 10 minutes, that is 2400 microgram. In an office-size room of 25 cubic metres, this is almost 100 micrograms per m3. This concentration of 0.1 mg/m3 is actually the US maximum level ('never exceed' level) for work health. In a medium-sized classroom (100 m3) you can play with this amount for 40 minutes before reaching the limit.

[squidwardDK]

@iasedu If this amount of mercury is spilled it will release 346 milligrams per day, or 3460 microgram/m3/day in the medium-size classroom. 80 % of inhaled mercury is absorbed. And remember, there are much lower safety levels for long-time exposure. Many scientists belive that there is no real safe level, even the slightest amount of mercury is harmful and should be avoided. Given that many things are more fun than Hg play, I'd rather avoid it or strictly use a fume hood.

[iasedu]

@squidwardDK I would say false, to all that.

[squidwardDK]

@iasedu Explanation, please. Is my math wrong, or something else?

[nickbhalo]

@squidwardDK Water vapor is heavy than air as well.

[michalchik]

Do you know what concentration this corresponds to?.

[eutectics]

is the mercury at room temerature? thats pritty scary!

[wwwperiodictableru]

Yes, almost. Beaker was a bit heated in hands.

[davidkennedydds]

This is a really well made video demonstrating the visualization of mercury vapor. Your camera really picked up the smoke well.

[davidkennedydds]

Can I use get a high quality copy of your excellent video to use in one or more of my public access movies about mercury poisoned dental personnel?

[wwwperiodictableru]

@davidkennedydds Yes, for sure!

If somebody like to get the original file (but with the name of my web site in bottom the angle) just write me.