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Mercury poisoning
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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Mercury poisoning can occur in both domestic and industrial settings.
Hydrargyrum is used in some industries as a raw material or by-product, and is also used in farming as a herbicide or pesticide. Hydrargyrum is an ingredient in some medicines and thermometers; mercury solutions are used for antisepsis.
Compounds of silver fulminate can penetrate the body by swallowing, inhaling vapors, through the skin and mucous membranes. We will talk about the features of mercury poisoning in our article.
Causes Mercury poisoning
Even an ordinary thermometer, which any of us can accidentally drop and break, can pose a risk of mercury poisoning. In this case, you can get poisoned if you do not take timely measures to eliminate the danger of fulminate silver evaporation.
In addition to the medical thermometer, other sources are known that can be dangerous. These are light sources, mercury-containing devices, nutrients containing metal, electric valves with mercury, energy-saving lamps, paint with silver fulminate (cinnabar).
Direct sources of toxic substances are:
- elemental mercury;
- inorganic complexes (salt mercury compounds);
- organic complexes (methylated mercury compounds).
All substances containing Hydrargyrum to one degree or another are poisonous, but organic complexes are most often found in everyday life, so the main danger lies in them. For example, we all know about the use of this metal in thermometers. It is also present in some filling mixtures used in dentistry.
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Forms
Poisoning
Intoxication with metal vapors contributes to the appearance of psychoneurological signs:
- increased excitability;
- sleep disorders;
- nervousness;
- double vision;
- difficulty swallowing;
- depressive state;
- loss of orientation;
- trembling in the limbs;
- headaches.
Inhalation of silver fulminate vapors may cause pneumonia, including edema.
A blood test will indicate a decrease in the level of hemoglobin and red blood cells, as well as leukopenia and a shift in the leukocyte formula to the left.
When inhaled, Hydrargyrum passes freely through the blood-brain and placental barriers.
Complications and consequences
The most adverse effects of mercury poisoning develop not from accidental breaking of a thermometer, but from sudden exposure to a significant concentration of the metal during industrial accidents, or from prolonged penetration of small amounts of the metal into the body.
Hydrargyrum is excreted from the body extremely slowly, regardless of the dose in which it enters. Women and children are especially sensitive to the damaging toxic effects of silver fulminate.
Among the most common consequences of mercury poisoning, which do not manifest immediately but over a long period of time, the following can be distinguished:
- damage to the mucous membranes of the digestive system, toxic damage to organs;
- disorder of motor function and ability to coordinate movements;
- psycho-emotional disorders;
- muscle weakness, chronic fatigue;
- disorders of the central nervous system and urinary system, acute renal failure.
The full picture of the late effects of mercury poisoning, unfortunately, has not yet been sufficiently studied.
Diagnostics Mercury poisoning
When diagnosing mercury poisoning, the first step is to determine the differences between this condition and acute gastrointestinal diseases, acute renal pathologies of non-toxic genesis, and acute cerebrovascular accidents.
Laboratory diagnostic methods consist of the following procedures:
Determination of free hemoglobin in the blood using photoelectrocolorimetry;
Quantitative determination of metal in the bloodstream and urine using colorimetry.
It should be borne in mind that the concentration of metal in the blood and urine may have normal values for 14 or more days from the moment of intoxication, and only then increase.
Tests for mercury poisoning will show a decrease in the amount of hemoglobin and red blood cells in the blood, leukopenia and a shift in the white blood cell count to the left. ESR increases.
Tests for mercury poisoning
There are several test programs used to determine metal concentrations. Blood, hair, and urine tests (with or without provocation) are used in both adult and pediatric patients.
Blood. Blood tests for metal content should be performed immediately after intoxication, as mercury has a very short half-life in the blood.
Hair and urine are used as indicators of toxic substance excretion from the body. Excretion is determined by the toxic load on the body and the concentration of the substance that controls this excretion. The essence of the method: hair grows approximately 1.5 cm every 1-2 months. This fact can be used to roughly determine the moment of poisoning.
Urine can be used to detect recent metal ingestion, usually within the last few days.
Provocation test. This is the most definitive method of detecting Hydrargyrum. It uses a special detoxifying substance that is injected into the body, after which a urine sample is taken. This procedure will indicate two important factors: that mercury was present in the body; that the detoxifying substance used can remove it.
Treatment Mercury poisoning
What to do?
What measures should be taken if Hydrargyrum appears in the room:
- ventilate the room well, open the windows, but close the doors leading to other rooms;
- warn family members that they should not enter the room to prevent the metal from spreading to other rooms and to prevent mercury vapor from escaping from the room;
- when entering the room, lay down a towel soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate;
- separate the part of the room where the mercury balls have scattered, put on rubber gloves and collect the balls in a plastic bag or a glass jar with a lid;
- You cannot use a vacuum cleaner, as metal particles may remain in the vacuum cleaner and continue their toxic effect;
- floors and surfaces that have been exposed to metal should be washed with a solution of potassium permanganate or chlorine.
After the measures taken, the concentration of mercury vapors decreases by 5 to 10 times.
The collected mercury can be handed over to the sanitary and epidemiological station, or poured into a plastic bag with bleach and buried.
Help
If mercury vapor is inhaled, the victim should be taken out of the hazardous area into fresh air and given first aid.
First of all, it is necessary to wash the stomach with a suspension of activated charcoal or water mixed with raw egg whites.
After this, the victim should be given milk to drink, egg white mixed with water, and then a laxative. It is recommended to additionally rinse the oral cavity with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, potassium chlorate or zinc chloride.
The victim should take a shower, change clothes and seek medical attention.
It is necessary to drink enough liquid throughout the day so that the mercury that ends up in the blood leaves the body more quickly through the urinary system.
Treatment
The main method of treatment can be considered the introduction of a dimercapto compound (Unitiol) into the body.
Prevention
To prevent mercury poisoning, it is necessary to take preventive measures.