#Quicksilver mercury skin#

India has now decided to phase out mercury manometers (BP apparatus) and mercury thermometers. The United States did it a decade back, Europe followed and the rest of the world slowly crawled out of the blanket of inhibition and banned mercury from clinical use. But today mercury has been declared an environmental toxin, which is not degraded even when disposed of.

#Quicksilver mercury skin#

As a medicineįor a long time, mercury was used as a medicine as skin applicant (Calomel, Quick silver) in cosmetics to relieve fluid retention in heart disease (mercurial diuretics), as a treatment for syphilis (Mercurous chloride) and as antiseptic (mercurochrome). And it kicked off the worldwide campaign to stop the use of mercury. It is estimated that Minamata disease killed 1,400 people. The methyl mercury released by the factory into the Minamata Bay was consumed by fish, which in turn was the staple food of the local community. It took another three years and an international expert committee to finally track down the disease as the Minamata Disease, caused by methyl mercury poisoning resulting from industrial waste from a plant named Chisso, manufacturing acetaldehyde. The authorities at Minamata notified it as an epidemic. For chronic patients, skin rashes and kidney and liver failure followed. Cats and birds started falling down, struck by convulsions. By the end of the month 40 patients were admitted with similar issues. On Apat Minamata, Japan, a five-year-old kid was brought to the hospital with complaints of difficulty in walking, talking and convulsions two days later her younger sister was admitted with the same symptoms. The Alchemists believed that just by altering the sulphur content of mercury one can change it into another metal obviously their hope was to end up with tonnes of gold. From Roman palace to Egyptian pyramids, from Chinese gardens to Mayan tombs, mercury was used everywhere as a royal decoration. In historyīut as early as 750 B.C., a time when mercury was discovered, the rich and the famous quickly got attracted to this unusual shiny silver-like liquid metal.

From fairness lotion to rejuvenating potion, from antiseptic balm to dental amalgam, from thermometer to sphygmomanometer (BP apparatus), mercury occupied a significant space in the doctor’s bag and medical textbooks. The ‘medical-man’, in contrast, fell in love with a shiny, fluid metal called mercury. The glint of gold jewellery identified rich, beautiful women, the sheen of a silver sword defined the strength of strong men. The axe evolved into the chain saw, the sling-shot to the AK47. that man started using metal to carve out implements catapulting the evolution of complex tools faster than we could imagine. Despite stone tools being in existence for 2.5 million years, it was only around 9000 B.C. Forty years later today we know that mercurochrome (mercury organohalide), has no antiseptic effect, and that the mercury in it is actually toxic.Ĭhemistry text books clearly state that metals form strong bonds with oxides, chlorides and sulphides but do not mention a far stronger bond the one with humans. We flaunted it, our parents hated it but neither party ever doubted its efficacy. The colour refused to fade from our uniform for weeks despite repeated washes. At the slightest doubt of a bruise, we would rush to our school infirmary for a dash of a bright red liquid called ‘mercurochrome’.