Mercury. What do we know about her? Most of us know from school that it is a heavy metal in liquid form... and one of the most toxic substances on the planet: mercury poisoning is very serious!
Mercury evaporates easily when room temperature. Its vapors settle on the surface of rooms and can penetrate various fabrics, paper, and wood. Mercury vapor poisoning has a number of serious consequences and threats to human health. Where can you find this dangerous substance? What to do in case of mercury poisoning? What medications are effective? We will talk about this and much more in this article.
What determines the severity of poisoning?
- dose of mercury;
- type of mercury (organic, inorganic);
- age of the victim;
- duration of exposure;
- routes of penetration of poison into the body (skin contact, inhalation, ingestion).
Where can I look for you, Mercury?
In ancient times, alchemists called mercury "Mercury", "silver water" or "quick silver". They tried to extract gold from mercury by adding sulfur and arsenic to it. History is silent about how long the alchemists lived after their experiments.
Nowadays, a temperature thermometer is the most famous “mercury” item, and mercury poisoning in children most often occurs precisely because of the “fault” of an ordinary mercury thermometer!
Mercury poisoning: types and causes
Poisoning with mercury compounds is divided into acute and chronic. Acute cases are usually encountered due to simple carelessness, for example, breaking a thermometer in the house. Chronic mercury poisoning is more common due to violation of safety regulations, lack of ventilation and malfunction of production equipment.
The list of sectors of the national economy in which inorganic and organic mercury compounds are used is quite extensive:
- industry;
- Agriculture;
- metallurgy;
- pharmacy;
- medicine.
In addition, cases of suicide or deliberate poisoning are rare, but still occur.
If safety precautions are violated at work, occupational mercury poisoning can occur.
Oceanologists are sounding the alarm: the waters of the seas and oceans are polluted with various chemicals, including mercury compounds. Consumption of seafood caught in contaminated waters can cause acute food mercury poisoning.
By the way...
There is also a “mercury” disease - Minamata. The disease owes its name to Japan. In the fifties of the last century, one of the industrial plants poured production waste directly into Minamata Bay. One of these substances turned out to be methylmercury. For many years, no one knew about the contamination of fish with mercury and did not connect the strange illness of local residents with severe poisoning. Patients complained of numbness in their arms and legs, deterioration in swallowing, vision and hearing, and could not move. Many of the sick died. Minamata disease is a classic example of acute mercury poisoning.
Mercury vapor enters the body through the respiratory system, skin and digestive organs. This insidious metal is released through the large intestine, kidneys, salivary glands, breast milk. Mercury compounds can accumulate in the body. “Mercury depots” are found in the spleen, lungs, bones, liver and kidneys. Under the influence of unfavorable factors, mercury enters the blood in small parts, exacerbating a person’s symptoms.
Even minimal amounts of mercury can pose a serious threat to fetal development. When the mother is poisoned, the child experiences developmental delay, deafness, epilepsy, speech impairment, blindness and seizures.
Good to know! Enterosgel in the fight against poisoning
Enterosgel has a porous structure. Substances of medium molecular weight bind on its surface: mercury salts, bacterial toxins, and many molecules toxic to the body. The drug is recommended by doctors for the treatment of poisoning with mercury compounds.
The first signs of mercury poisoning become apparent after a couple of hours.
Both children and adults develop:
- dry cough;
- vomit;
- salivation;
- abdominal pain;
- chills;
- dyspnea;
- headache.
And here’s what the symptoms of mercury poisoning look like when the thermometer is broken:
- bleeding from the gums;
- sweating;
- increased urination;
- the appearance of blood impurities in the stool;
- blurred vision;
- chest pain.
How does mercury poisoning manifest itself during chronic intoxication with “silver water”? Chronic intoxication with small doses of “mercury” is called mercurialism.
Signs of mercury vapor poisoning include:
- fatigue;
- insomnia;
- depression;
- anxiety and other neurological disorders;
- develops.
One cruel Chinese emperor had a curious hobby - organizing boat rides on a lake filled with pure mercury. Scientists suspect that his characteristic cruelty, bordering on madness, was precisely a consequence of mercury vapor poisoning.
The main manifestations of chronic mercury poisoning:
- skin rashes;
- photophobia;
- profuse sweating;
- swelling of the limbs;
- impaired tactile sensitivity of the skin;
- change in taste;
- hair loss;
- interruptions in heart function;
- frequent fainting.
By the way...
Several centuries ago, many diseases, including syphilis, were treated with “mercury” injections and mercury vapor. It was from chronic poisoning with mercury drugs that Mozart died while trying to recover from this infectious disease.
Consequences of mercury poisoning:
- deterioration of the functioning of the endocrine glands and liver, brain, and hematopoietic organs.
- decreased concentration;
- memory impairment;
- with excitement - trembling of the eyelids, lips and fingers.
Kidney symptoms of mercury poisoning include swelling and increased blood pressure.
An allergic reaction to mercury is also possible - as a rule, it is manifested by keratinization of the skin of the face, soles, palms, measles-like rashes and the formation of ulcers on the skin.
Do you know?
British scientists claim that US President Abraham Lincoln's fits of rage were associated with taking an antidepressant containing high doses of mercury.
First aid for mercury poisoning
The victim must be removed from the room contaminated with vapors, called an ambulance and given Enterosgel sorbent. Products with enveloping properties are also suitable - jelly, raw egg, milk.
What to do if you break a thermometer in your apartment?
First of all, put aside your angry tirades, start cleaning and collect mercury!
First of all, you should remove everyone from the “dangerous” room and properly ventilate the room. The door should be tightly closed to prevent toxic fumes from entering other rooms. The gap between the floor and the door should be covered with a damp towel.
Take care of your health: protect your nose and mouth with a cotton-gauze bandage or regular thick cloth and wear rubber gloves. When cleaning, do not use a broom or vacuum cleaner - mercury “droplets” must be collected manually. By the way, the most convenient way to do this is with a plaster or pieces of paper folded into an envelope. The collected mercury must be placed in a glass jar with a solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate), tightly closing the jar with a lid, and then handed over to the sanitary and epidemiological station.
It is prohibited to throw collected mercury into the trash or pour it down the drain!
When removing traces of the “mercury cataclysm”, monitor the condition of family members. When the first ones appear, immediately call an ambulance.
Mercury poisoning from a thermometer. Symptoms
It is worth saying right away that with timely cleansing of the room from heavy metal, intoxication can be avoided. If the child does not admit to what he has done, then the nervous system will react to poisoning with general weakness, headache and lethargy. In severe acute mercury poisoning from a thermometer - symptoms of depression of consciousness, coma.
Signs of mercury poisoning with a broken thermometer from the digestive system:
- vomit;
- loose stools;
- intense abdominal pain;
- profuse salivation.
In addition, symptoms of damage to the oral mucosa will indicate mercury poisoning - over time, a dark coating forms on the gums.
By the way, lead poisoning also changes the gum lining. A “lead border” appears - a dark stripe near the front teeth. Chronic lead poisoning causes the “lead triad”: lead colic, lead border and lead coloring (sallow complexion with jaundice). But, let's return to the symptoms and consequences of mercury intoxication.
By inhaling mercury vapor from a thermometer, you can “get” the development of bronchitis or pneumonia, accompanied by a dry cough.
At high concentrations of mercury vapor from the thermometer, pulmonary edema or hemoptysis occurs.
In case of poisoning with organic compounds containing mercury, neurological disorders, respiratory and digestive disorders, and dermatitis often occur. These substances are very toxic: for example, there is a known case when a laboratory technician accidentally spilled dimethylmercury on his gloves, which ultimately caused visual impairment, speech, gait and death.
How to diagnose mercury salt poisoning
Doctors perform tests to detect mercury in urine, hair, and blood. In this case, the level of toxic metal may not increase immediately, but after some time, sometimes even several weeks after the moment of contact.
Mercury intoxication. Treatment
Doctors rely more on symptoms, and treatment is prescribed immediately after determining the source of poisoning. After hospitalization, the victim is observed by doctors in the intensive care unit, a nephrologist and a toxicologist. In case of mercury vapor poisoning, it is carried out complex treatment complexons, sorbents, penicillamine.
Prevention of mercury poisoning
Observe safety precautions when using mercury devices! If possible, measure your body temperature with an electronic thermometer and replace fluorescent lighting with modern ones LED lamps(by the way, the latter will help you save a lot on electricity!)
Make an effort to keep the thermometer and first aid kit out of reach of the child. Explain to your child that a thermometer is not a toy, but if it happens that the thermometer is broken, this fact cannot be hidden: you need to immediately inform your parents about it!
If you are forced to come into contact with mercury due to your profession, use personal protective equipment and systematically cleanse your body with Enterosgel.
Mercury poisoning is a situation that everyone can face. This can easily happen in Everyday life, because we all have thermometers or energy-saving lamps at home. Therefore, in the event of an unforeseen situation, you must know how to act in order to save yourself and your loved ones as quickly as possible.
Mercury is a heavy white-silver metal that highly toxic to all life forms. Mercury is a trace element and is rarely found in nature, however, it is easily obtained using chemical reactions and is used in medicine (sublimate, calomel, various compounds of mercury with other substances), scientific activity(barometers, pressure gauges, thermometers), cinnabar as a pigment, and a component of paint for marine vessels (to combat microorganisms). It can also be found in such household items as a thermometer, doorbell and fluorescent lamp.
Ways to get poisoned
In everyday life, there is a considerable chance of encountering mercury and getting poisoned. The main routes of infection can be:
- Exposure to mercury particles during food intake. It can end up in marine fish and shellfish that live in bodies of water full of garbage. This happens when the fish contains such a high mercury content that even after standard heat treatment it can remain in the product in small quantities.
- Careless handling of household appliances. Mercury is contained in thermometers and fluorescent lamps, which are not harmful to humans in our usual state. But if you break these objects, you can be poisoned by the toxic fumes that are released by mercury in a liquid state.
- Failure to follow instructions when using medications. Sometimes they contain mercury salts, which can cause poisoning if consumed frequently. Mercury is also actively used in the production of vaccines and dental fillings based on amalgam substances, so the composition of these products should be clarified in advance.
Signs of mercury poisoning and its consequences
Poisoning can have different characteristics, be acute or chronic. Depending on this, the symptoms at the first stage of infection will vary. In everyday life, chronic poisoning is more likely, since mercury can enter the body unnoticed through food or a broken thermometer and begin to slowly affect it from the inside.
Mercury can enter the body through the lungs (penetrating with air vapor) or through the skin (direct contact with the substance).
The main signs of poisoning (acute and chronic) are presented below in the comparative table:
| Acute poisoning | Chronic poisoning |
| represents corrosion of the gastrointestinal tract by mercury salts, inflammation respiratory tract | represents a long-term deleterious effect on the nervous system |
Symptoms:
| Symptoms:
|
Consequences:
| Consequences:
|
In adults, children and pregnant women, the signs of poisoning are approximately the same. However, in young children, infection of the body occurs several times faster than in an adult, and they need help immediately. Children can not only break the thermometer, but also swallow mercury balls, so you need to be on guard. Pregnant women are at risk of losing their fetus, but such cases are very rare.
It is necessary to take into account that each person will have an individual set of symptoms. In practice, you may encounter one or several signs at a time. At the same time, symptoms may correspond to poisoning by other metals. If there is any doubt about the presence of mercury in the body, you should do a blood test to determine the content of toxic substances as soon as possible.
Treatment of mercury poisoning
Treatment is carried out to prevent the dissolution of mercury by fluids in the body, to protect sensitive tissues and to remove the toxic substance from the body. It is carried out in several stages.
- You need to leave the poisoning zone or go out into fresh air.
- Clean the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, eyes and open skin areas that have interacted with the substance, water or potassium permanganate slightly diluted in water.
- If there are disturbances in breathing or the activity of the heart or blood vessels, it is necessary to first slow down the bleeding and perform resuscitation of the heart/lungs.
- Rinse the stomach with potassium permanganate, dissolving it in cold water. This process should be performed several times a day. After this, sorbents are prescribed 4 times a day.
- Inject diuretics into the body to flush out the poison.
- If ulcers occur on various organs, symptomatic treatment should be provided.
It's important to remember that self-treatment It's better not to do it. At the slightest threat of poisoning, you should call a doctor or emergency services.
Doctors to contact for mercury poisoning: infectious disease specialist, epidemiologist, traumatologist.
Prevention
When encountering mercury, you need to be vigilant and even after treatment, follow a number of rules:
- if a mercury-containing lamp or thermometer was broken, the entire range of actions should be carried out to eliminate the remaining mercury;
- it is necessary to ventilate the room in which the mercury was spilled for a week;
- people who deal with this chemical element at a professional level need to rinse their mouths with a solution of potassium chlorate or permanganate after work or during a shift;
- if a person is poisoned by mercury salts, you need to take raw egg white, which is an excellent adsorbent;
- You should replace all thermometers at home with electronic ones and be careful with light bulbs.
Action plan for a broken thermometer
The most common situation encountered in everyday life is a broken thermometer. Usually Thermometers contain approximately 2 g of mercury, and getting half of this dose into the body can already lead to death.
Of course, a lot depends on the specific characteristics of the person (age, body weight, etc.) and on the size of the room in which the accident occurred. These factors will influence the degree of poisoning. If safety measures are not followed, the risk of poisoning will be almost 100%, since 0.4 mg is already the average dose of intoxication.
How to behave in this unforeseen situation?
- Open the doors and windows, thereby reducing the overall temperature in the room due to the penetration of cool air (in warm air, toxic vapor will spread more actively).
- Take all household members and animals outside.
- At the entrance to the room you should place a cloth soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate - this will slow down the spread of vapors.
- Call the rescue service or the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
- If it is not possible to do this, you can collect mercury yourself. It is important to take all precautions (wear a mask, rubber gloves, shoe covers). It is better to collect mercury balls with tape, a sheet of paper or a medical bulb, after which you need to place the mercury in a glass jar with water. Vacuuming mercury is strictly prohibited, as vacuuming will only increase the spread of the substance.
- Check nearby items for mercury exposure. Contaminated fabrics must be placed in a plastic bag and taken out of the apartment, then handed over to the rescue service for inspection.
- If the substance ends up on the floor or household items, you need to wash them with a chlorine solution and a solution of potassium permanganate (after 10 minutes).
- It is important to take care of your health by taking some preventive measures: wash the shoes you were wearing with potassium permanganate; rinse your mouth with the same solution, but less concentrated; brush your teeth; take 2-3 tablets of activated carbon.
Video material on safety rules for contact with mercury
Below is a video that clearly explains the precautions and rules for handling mercury in the event of a broken thermometer.
Conclusion
Mercury poisoning is a serious illness that should be taken very seriously. The main thing is to take precautions in time and call a doctor or emergency service, then you can definitely protect yourself.
Mercury (Hg) is a heavy metal that has a liquid state of aggregation at room temperature. Silvery-white balls, which are capable of being divided into small ones and in an instant united into large formations, are fraught with a terrible danger of poisoning. Mercury vapor and salts are the most highly toxic compounds for all living beings. And they are located in remote corners of the earth, but also in our homes, at arm's length.
In nature this chemical element occurs:
- in the form of inclusions in rocks;
- as a secretion during the firing of cinnabar.
Mercury is widely used in many industries (instrument making, shipbuilding, metallurgy, military industry, agriculture, chemical industry, electronic and photographic industries, medicine and in everyday life), where there is a risk of poisoning with mercury vapor.
Sources of poisoning
To be poisoned by Hg, you do not have to go to a factory where mercury is used. This metal is easily available in public places and even in the home atmosphere.
Poisoning can be caused by the following mercury-containing sources.
Glass mercury thermometers and fluorescent light bulbs in our homes are potentially dangerous not only from sharp fragments, but also from undetected mercury balls that we and our children can inhale or swallow. Mercury poisoning is especially dangerous from a thermometer. If the meter or lamp breaks, in order to avoid poisoning from a toxic compound, it is recommended:
- Take the child out of the room.
- Close the door and open the window.
- Collect the mercury in an airtight container.
- Collect mercury balls wearing a mask and rubber gloves.
- Collect the toxin with two sheets of paper, placing its balls with one sheet on the surface of the other, or with the sticky side of a patch.
- After sealing the container with the collected metal, check the floor and wrap items that have been in contact with the toxic substance in a plastic bag.
- Call the Ministry of Emergency Situations, who will tell you where to dispose of the collected metal and things. Collected mercury, even in small volumes, should not be thrown into the trash!
Professional
Workers in several types of industries also run the risk of mercury intoxication, and even its chronic forms: mercurialism or micromercurialism. According to reviews, workers experience:
- migraine;
- weakness, drowsiness;
- hypotension, arrhythmia;
- mercurial tremor - trembling of the limbs, eyelids and lips;
- frequent urge to defecate, urinate;
- hyperhidrosis;
- depressive disorders and other forms of disorders nervous system;
- decreased sensitivity to smells and tastes;
- poor emotional self-control;
- There is a decrease in thinking abilities and concentration.
Medical
Mercury compounds contain: vaccines, medications with thiomersal preservatives, laxatives, antidotes. And amalgam-based dental fillings contain hundreds of milligrams of the mentioned toxin.
Food
Organic mercury compounds are found in seafood. Accumulating in meat sea fish and shellfish, in percentage terms they are hundreds of times higher than the proportion of mercury in sea water. Such products, once on the table, threaten people's health.
Among the population of countries with developed fisheries, from 1 to 17 newborns and infants out of every thousand suffer from mental retardation and other complications from consuming mercury-containing seafood.
Eating mercury-contaminated fish has a detrimental effect on the health of pregnant women. Pregnancy can be interrupted: the toxic metal causes pathologies to the fetus and can kill it. Heat treatment does not destroy toxic substances accumulated in products!
Signs of mercury poisoning
When obvious symptoms of intoxication occur, the doctor conducts a differential diagnosis, taking into account working conditions and analyzing the situation in order to make a diagnosis and the form of the compound that occurred during intoxication in order to prescribe effective treatment.
Elemental mercury vapor is absorbed by the lungs and enters the bloodstream. In case of a single poisoning, they do not affect the gastrointestinal tract and accumulate to high concentrations in the brain.
Poisoning with inorganic mercury compounds (from mercury-containing products) has a different pathogenesis. Mercury salts are absorbed into the bloodstream from the gastrointestinal tract (sometimes through the skin). The substance corrodes the mucous membrane, accumulates in the kidneys, liver, spleen, intestines, bone marrow, nerve fibers and skin.
The first signs of mercury vapor poisoning, which indicate that intoxication has occurred, appear after 8-10 hours:
- weakness;
- drowsiness;
- severe migraine;
- vomit;
- diarrhea.
In this case, you should quickly consult a doctor for medical assistance. The symptoms that appear after mercury poisoning are very dangerous, because acute forms of intoxication begin to appear:
Acute
The following signs will help determine poisoning with inorganic mercury salts:
- Inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract: pain, nausea and bloody vomiting, bloody stools and the development of necrosis of the mucous membranes.
- Acute kidney necrosis.
- Loss of fluid, which threatens the development of shock and the risk of sudden death.
Acute poisoning with organic compounds causes:
- constant headaches;
- loss of coordination;
- memory problems;
- paresthetic irritation of the nerves of the brain and spinal cord;
- speech, vision and hearing impairments;
- erethism;
- spasm;
- paralysis;
- sudden death.
Chronic
Chronic forms of intoxication have both main and several additional manifestations:
- gingivitis and stomatitis;
- loss of teeth;
- increased salivation;
- scaly dermatitis and other types of skin rashes;
- irritability and hypersensitivity;
- hyperhidrosis;
- nephrotic syndrome;
- swelling of the hands, fingers and toes;
- mercurial tremor.
It is impossible to cure chronic mercury intoxication, but with persistent long-term treatment, remissions can occur.
First aid and further treatment
Most often, acute poisoning with mercury compounds (sublimate, mercuzal, calomel) occurs through subcutaneous and intravenous administration (medicines) and through the mouth (divalent mercury salts in chemicals), as well as through inhalation of vapors. In each of the described cases, first aid measures are required:
| Form of poisoning | First aid |
| Poisoning through the gastrointestinal tract | Urgent gastric lavage. Drink a few glasses clean water and stimulate vomiting. Taking sorbents will not bring any benefit: they do not interact with mercury! |
| Mercury contact with skin | Washing the skin with a weak solution of potassium permanganate |
| Pairs through the air | First aid: Take the victim out into fresh air, and if necessary, unfasten clothes to make breathing easier. |
| Sublimate poisoning through medications | Quick evacuation to the clinic. The doctor inserts a probe with Strzhizhevsky's hydrogen sulfide water for 10 minutes. Then gastric lavage is done. |
| General recommendation | To bind and remove mercury compounds, drink raw egg whites and milk. |
In case of deterioration general condition In order to prevent shock and collapse, morphine and atropine are administered subcutaneously. An antidote is also used against absorbed poison - polythiol resins, for example, unithiol.
After stabilizing the patient's condition, a 5% glucose solution is administered generously (subcutaneously, through a dropper, or as an enema).
If urine and blood tests reveal high concentrations of poison, complex-forming therapy in the form of drugs is prescribed for a course of treatment, which can last more than one month:
| Form of poisoning | Drug/therapy | Action | Conditions/dose |
| Acute | Dimercaprol | Antidote for poisoning with heavy metal salts and arsenic compounds | 24 mg/kg per day, intramuscularly. Duration – 5 days |
| D-penicillamine | Binding and splitting of heavy metal ions (used simultaneously with dimercaprol) | 30 mg/kg per day, in 2-3 doses. Duration – 5 days | |
| Peritoneal dialysis | The antidote solution is administered through a catheter and binds toxins in the gastrointestinal tract and is eliminated after a few hours. | 4-5 hour procedure: 3-5 times a day | |
| Hemodialysis | Extrarenal blood purification from toxic products with a dialysate (electrolyte-rich) solution | 10-12 hour procedure. | |
| Chronic | N-acetyl-DL-penicillamine | Antidote, has a milder effect than dimercaprol. Reducing the severity of symptoms, increasing the excretion of mercury in the urine. | 30 mg/kg per day in 2-3 divided doses |
| D-penicillamine | Breakdown of heavy metal ions (used simultaneously with N-acetyl-DL-penicillamine) | 30 mg/kg per day, in 2-3 doses. Course – 5 days |
Consequences of poisoning
Inhalation of such a highly toxic substance as mercury compounds does not always cause poisoning and, moreover, Negative consequences. According to epidemiological standards, the permissible concentration of mercury vapor in the air should not exceed 0.0003 mg/m. This dosage is safe for humans.
The majority of cases of mercury intoxication occur with an increase in the concentration of compounds in air environment up to 0.13–0.80 mg/m. In situations where the volume of vapor during inhalation is 2.5 g or higher, an acute form of poisoning develops with a fatal outcome. After such a degree of damage, a person dies within a few days.
The acute form of the disease sometimes becomes chronic and often leads to the development of complications:
- mental and neurophysiological disorders, including disability;
- abnormalities in the fetus (in case of poisoning of pregnant women);
- lifelong impairment of motor coordination;
- diseases of the digestive tract;
- severe kidney disease.
The effects of the slow, gradual accumulation of mercury toxins in the body can take several years or even decades to appear.
Death
Acute poisoning with a toxic compound sometimes ends in death. It is provoked by a critical loss of fluid in the body due to bloody vomiting and bloody stools. Inorganic mercury also causes kidney necrosis. As these symptoms progress over 5-10 days, shock and death occur.
Natural antidotes are available, useful, proven “folk” antitoxins, but in case of acute damage they are ineffective:
- milk;
- egg whites.
Chemical (medical antidotes) are medications administered only in a hospital setting, difficult to tolerate by the body, but effective:
- magnesium sulfate;
- uniitol;
- Strzhizhevsky antidote;
- succimer;
- penicillamine;
- tetacin-calcium and magnesium;
- Sodium dimercaptopropanesulfonate.
Prevention of intoxication
The best way to combat mercury poisoning is to follow safety measures at work and at home. When working in an enterprise where there is a risk of industrial intoxication, you need to take precautions, or even better, change jobs.
Doctors recommend getting rid of mercury thermometers and replacing fluorescent lamps with other types of energy-saving devices. If you still use such light bulbs, do not throw broken capsules into regular trash so as not to be poisoned by toxic metal yourself.
A child is poisoned by mercury faster, more severely and for a longer period than an adult. Dr. Komarovsky recommends: tell children about the ability of mercury balls to disperse and teach them, if detected, not to eliminate them themselves, but to turn to their parents for help.
Every family uses devices that contain mercury: thermometers, fluorescent or mercury lamps. Given the weak structure, these household items can easily break at the most inopportune moment, the consequences of which are impossible to predict.
Today, mercury vapor poisoning occurs with sufficient frequency, despite the fact that manufacturers are trying to improve such accessories.
To avoid such a situation, you should follow some precautions. You can protect your family from poisoning by using a mercury antidote, which must be used correctly and on time.
Before using antidotes to eliminate signs of poisoning, you should make sure whether it actually happened and what caused it.
Signs of mercury vapor poisoning have characteristic manifestations of heavy metal poisoning.
Let's look at the most obvious of them:
- If mercury gets on the skin or mucous membrane of the eyes, the symptoms are local. The eyes become inflamed, which causes conjunctivitis, nasopharyngolaryngitis, itching and skin rashes. In this case, the patient’s condition worsens until the temperature rises to 40-41 C.
- Mercury vapor affects the upper respiratory tract. A cough, bronchitis, and often an asthmatic attack appear.
- If mercury enters directly into the body, patients complain of a metallic taste in the mouth, headache, and drowsiness.
- Difficulty swallowing, contractions, acute pain in the abdomen, bloating.
- Repeated vomiting with blood.
- Insomnia, irritability, salivation.
This symptomatology is observed due to severe intoxication not only with mercury, but also with other heavy metals. To make sure of mercury poisoning, it is worth inspecting the location of the victim.
Nearby you can find:
- Broken household items: thermometer or mercury lamp;
- A large amount of seafood, especially if it is shellfish;
- If there are landfills nearby, garbage bins, where batteries, pressure gauges, and incandescent lamps can be thrown away.
First aid involves the use of antidotes, the action of which is aimed at binding and eliminating negative impact metal
IMPORTANT!!! In the case when you have accurately established the cause of poisoning and applied the antidote in time, this does not mean that there is no need for hospitalization. In any case, you need to seek help from a hospital to conduct a full diagnosis of the body.
Many different drugs and improvised means are used to neutralize mercury. The most famous of them are:
Unithiol. The drug instantly binds metal compounds when interacting with it. It is administered intravenously and, due to its speed of action, has a beneficial effect after just a few minutes. For a conscious victim, the drug can be administered orally.
Proteins, amino acids and other antidotes
From available means, you can use the following as neutralizing agents:
- Raw chicken egg white;
- Methionine is an amino acid found in goat milk;
- Activated carbon.
Due to their availability, these substances can provide timely assistance in case of poisoning while the patient is taken to the hospital. Each of the components can be taken orally on its own for any type of poisoning. Their use is recommended in extreme cases, when there are no other stronger drugs at hand.
Magnesium sulfate- another medicinal substance available in the medicine cabinet of those suffering from high blood pressure. However, its use should be supervised by healthcare professionals.
Hardly available antidotes
Strizhevsky's antidote. It is unlikely that you will be able to find this drug in the average person’s medicine cabinet, but it is an excellent antidote to mercury. It is used intravenously in a dosage of 100 ml of the substance at a time, which may vary depending on the amount of the toxic substance ingested.
Thetacine-calcium and magnesium. These medications are not taken independently, only on the recommendation, prescription and supervision of doctors. It is administered intravenously along with saline or glucose. It is prohibited to experiment with the technique at home.
Sodium dimercaptopropanesulfonate. It has an excellent neutralizing effect along with previous drugs. Prescribed for children. Prescribed with extreme caution for pregnant women and during lactation.
If your first aid kit contains at least a few of the above drugs that do not require strict medical supervision, then at the first stage of assistance you can easily cope on your own before the ambulance arrives.
Mercury poisoning is one of the most serious and dangerous poisonings of the body. Adults and children should beware of this, especially when mercury thermometers are broken. Mercury is a rather dangerous substance. The most dangerous thing is not the metal itself, but mercury vapor poisoning. Even a small dose of a substance can cause serious disruptions in the functioning of the body. Mercury exposure typically affects the digestive system, nervous system, skin, liver, kidneys and eyes. This element is dangerous for humans; mercury is widely used in industry, for example, for the manufacture of mercury thermometers.
Causes
The very cause of mercury poisoning is the entry of a toxic substance into the body in large doses. Mercury enters through provoking factors:
- Working conditions under which a person has to come into contact with a given substance (chemical or metallurgical industry).
- Dentistry. When a filling is placed, it typically contains a certain amount of mercury, which can cause poisoning.
- Fluorescent lamps. The dose of mercury contained in the lamps may well lead to poisoning of the child’s body.
- Mercury thermometer.
- Seafood. The accumulation of a large amount of mercury salts and the concentration does not decrease during their processing.
Toxic dose of mercury
The dose rate of mercury should not exceed 0.0003 mg/m3. Inhalation of mercury vapor containing a toxin concentration of 0.25 mg/m3 provokes the accumulation of the substance in the body.
If the concentration is higher, then the vapors are able to penetrate healthy skin. There are acute and chronic poisonings.
Clinical picture
Acute mercury poisoning occurs with short exposure to the toxin, but in significant doses sufficient to cause poisoning. After a short time, the following symptoms occur:
- Headache;
- Weakness, malaise;
- Sore throat when swallowing;
- Decreased appetite;
- Metallic taste;
- Severe drooling;
- Bleeding gums;
- Nausea, vomiting.
After a short amount of time, more severe symptoms of mercury poisoning occur:
- Severe abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea;
- Cough and shortness of breath;
- Body temperature rises;
Similar manifestations occur in adults and children. In children, symptoms of mercury poisoning increase much faster and are more pronounced. Therefore, children require immediate medical attention. Chronic mercury poisoning is characterized by inhalation of mercury vapor over a significant period of time. Sometimes this can be several months or even years. The nature of the symptoms depends on the condition of the body and its immune defense. Most often it appears:
- Fast fatiguability.
- Drowsiness.
- Weakness.
- Dizziness.
- Emotional lability.
There may be a loss of self-control, dementia, and with excitement, tremors of the limbs and the urge to defecate or urinate. Increased sweating, loss of smell and taste, enlarged thyroid gland and heart failure.
Is a broken thermometer dangerous?
Mercury is a highly toxic substance. Naturally, even mercury from a broken thermometer can cause poisoning. If mercury is not collected and disposed of in a timely manner, acute poisoning occurs. If mercury is not completely collected, then its exposure over a long period provokes the onset of chronic poisoning.
Mercury is especially harmful to older people and children, since their bodies are weakened and have less resistance. Symptoms appear much faster. The signs of mercury poisoning from a thermometer are the same.
What to do if the thermometer breaks
Many people use mercury thermometers and sometimes break them due to carelessness. You need to know how to properly collect mercury. Its balls are small and can go unnoticed in cracks, carpet fibers or under baseboards. Such inattention can cause the development of chronic poisoning. Because of this, symptoms of mercury poisoning with a broken thermometer may appear after a long time.
- If the thermometer is broken, children and animals should be taken out of the room. They are capable of accidentally swallowing a thermometer or spreading them to other rooms. Then you should ventilate the room, but at the same time close the doors to adjacent rooms. Do not allow drafts to occur that can carry mercury throughout the room, making it difficult to collect.
- In such a situation, people panic, begin to collect mercury with their hands, or try to vacuum the room. This is not true. If you don’t know how to properly collect mercury, you should call rescuers. They will tell you how to do it correctly.
- To collect mercury balls, you need to wear shoe covers, gloves and cover your nose with gauze. Mercury balls stick well to cotton pads or napkins moistened with water, to white bread. You can use tape or adhesive tape. You cannot use a vacuum cleaner for collection, as it will soon become a distributor of mercury vapor.
- After cleaning, you should check hard-to-reach places, such as all crevices and corners. The collected mercury must be placed in a jar of water, and then taken to a place indicated by the Ministry of Emergency Situations employees.
A broken thermometer carries with it possible consequences. However, they can be avoided if you carefully collect mercury balls in the room and check all hard-to-reach places.
How to determine vapor concentration
It is impossible to determine the amount of mercury in the air on your own and without special instruments. They have no smell or other signs. The presence of metal in the room is determined only when the corresponding symptoms occur, since they can appear within a few minutes.
The vapor concentration is measured with a special device. If the thermometer breaks, you should call a special service that will measure the indicators and help in collecting and disposing of the substance.
First aid
If poisoning does occur, emergency assistance must be provided before the ambulance arrives. If a person is conscious, then he needs access fresh air, it is advisable to go outside. If he cannot walk on his own, then assistance must be provided or carried out on a stretcher.
In case of mercury poisoning, gastric lavage is required. To do this, drink a large amount of water and then induce vomiting. After rinsing you need to drink Activated carbon, the number of tablets is calculated in accordance with the rules. In case of poisoning, you need to drink as much fluid as possible, as the urinary system will speed up the removal of the toxic substance.
These activities will be of great benefit if the water you drink contains sulfur, egg white or activated carbon. Sulfur converts mercury into particles that become harmless to the body.
The patient must be placed on his side to prevent vomit from entering the respiratory tract if vomiting occurs. To free the airway, the victim's lower jaw must be moved forward a little. The tongue must be pulled out to prevent it from retracting and blocking the airway.
There are rarely any medications available at home that can neutralize the toxic effects of mercury.
In addition to these measures, it is necessary to properly collect the mercury if this happened at home when the thermometer was broken, otherwise it will have an effect for a long time.
Treatment
Inpatient treatment is primarily aimed at removing the toxin from the body. In case of chronic poisoning, sanatorium-resort treatment is required after hospitalization.
Complications
The presence of complications is typical only for chronic form poisoning Most often, complications occur in children and pregnant women. Basically they manifest themselves:
- Malfunctions of the nervous system and the appearance of emotional instability;
- In violation of the development of fine motor skills and coordination of movements;
- In violation of the urinary system and gastrointestinal tract.
If you do not consult a doctor promptly, this situation can lead to death. The sooner a poisoned person receives medical attention and begins treatment, the higher the likelihood of a complete recovery and the absence of complications.
Diagnostics
Malaise and other symptoms are precisely mercury poisoning. In this case, all possible diseases that manifest such signs should be excluded.
To diagnose poisoning, the following measures are taken:
- Blood and urine test for mercury content. If mercury poisoning really occurs, then there will be mercury particles in the blood and urine. However, it is worth knowing that mercury is detected in tests only 2 weeks after poisoning.
- Examination of hair on the head. This method is used to diagnose chronic poisoning. This allows us to determine the approximate time when mercury first entered the body. In a child and an adult, hair normally grows by 1.5 cm in a few months. It is the hair growth that will help determine this, since in case of mercury poisoning it slows down.
- A special solution injected into the body shows whether mercury is present in the body.
Prevention
To prevent such terrible poisoning, you need to adhere to the following recommendations:
- Store mercury thermometers out of the reach of children and animals, preferably in a bottle.
- If a mercury thermometer is broken, the mercury balls should be collected in accordance with the action algorithm and make sure that all the substance has been collected.
- When using fluorescent lamps, their correct and reliable installation is required.
- When working near this metal, workers should undergo regular medical examinations.
From all this it is worth concluding that mercury poisoning is a rather serious phenomenon that can lead to death. If symptoms appear, you should immediately consult a doctor or call an ambulance, as this may have irreversible consequences. It is necessary to adhere to the rules of prevention in order to exclude possible poisoning.
If it does happen, then first aid must be indicated in accordance with the algorithm of actions. Since many people use mercury thermometers, you need to know the rules for collecting mercury if the thermometer is broken. Mercury is a rather dangerous substance that can quickly spread throughout a room. Therefore, it is necessary to interact with it with caution and in accordance with the collection rules.
