'Josiah'+Mercury+-+The+Deadly+Assassin



=Mercury - The Deadly Assassin =

__**General Properties **__

Name of Element : Mercury  Symbol of Element : Hg  Atomic Number of Mercury : 80  Atomic Mass: 200.59 mol  Melting Point: -38.87 °C  Boiling Point: 356.58 °C Family: Transition Metal State at R.T.P.: Liquid

Mercury is a heavy silvery-white metal which is, with the exception of bromine, the only metal which exists in liquid state at R.T.P. Although mercury is found at only few locations in the world, it is not considered a rare element as it if extracted from largely-concentrated deposits. The use of mercury has dated back to the 15th to 16th century, where it is discovered to have been stored in a glass container within an Egyptian tomb. Mercury has a variety of uses, and is also notorious for its fatal effects of poisoning. Qin Shi Huang, in 210 BC, took mercury plls believed to provide immortality and suffered from an ironic death 3 days later.


 * __Electron Configuration__**

2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 2


 * __Chemical Reactivity__**

Mercury is moderately active. It does not react with **oxygen** in the air very readily. It reacts with some acids when they are hot, but not with most cold acids.

**__Isotopes__**  Seven naturally occurring isotopes of mercury are known. They are mercury-196, mercury-198, mercury-199, mercury-200, mercury-201, mercury-202, and mercury-204 **__Uses__**  Mercury is most often used nowadays for the mercury thermometer. Boasting a wide temperature range, it is an effective thermometer which is necessary to measure chemical reactions at high temperatures.   Mercury is often used preparation of chlorine. With a 'Mercury Cell', Chlorine can produced by passing an electric current through sodium chloride with mercury amalgam, preventing a violent reaction of water experienced without mercury applied.  Mercury can also be used in batteries and lamps. __**Facts about the dangers of Mercury**__ <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Mercury metal and most compounds of mercury are highly toxic. Interestingly enough, scientists have become aware of this fact only quite recently. The toxicity of //some// mercury compounds has been known for many centuries. One form of mercury chloride known as calomel, for example, was sometimes used as a poison to kill people. It was also once used extensively to kill fungi and control maggots in agricultural crops. <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> But even as recently as fifty years ago, there was relatively little concern about mercury metal and many mercury compounds. High school chemistry students often played with tiny droplets of mercury in the laboratory. They used mercury to coat pennies and other pieces of metal. <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Mercury was also widely used in dentistry. It was used to make amalgams, alloys of mercury with other metals, used to fill teeth. Most people even today are likely to have dental fillings that contain a small amount of mercury metal. <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> In the last fifty years, chemists have learned a great deal more about the toxic effects of both mercury metal and most of its compounds. They now know that mercury itself enters the body very easily. Its vapors pass through the skin into the blood stream. Its vapors can also be inhaled. And, of course, it can also be swallowed. In any of these cases, mercury gets into blood and then into cells. There it interferes with essential chemical reactions and can cause illness and death. <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Sometimes, these effects occur over very long periods of time. People who work with mercury, for example, may take in small amounts of mercury over months or years. Health problems develop very slowly. These problems can include inflammation of the mouth and gums; loosening of the teeth; damage to the kidneys and muscles; shaking of the arms and legs; and depression, nervousness, and personality changes. <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">

<span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">__**Precautions taken**__ <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">**I** n a tragic irony, a scientist who was helping to improve the environment died as a result of her efforts. On June 8, 1997, Dartmouth College chemistry professor Karen Wetterhahn died of mercury poisoning. Less than a year earlier, she had been experimenting with dimethyl mercury when she spilled a tiny amount on her hands. Dimethyl mercury is one of the most toxic of mercury compounds. <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Wetterhahn was studying the effects that heavy metals (mercury, chromium, lead, and arsenic) have on living things. She was concerned about how these elements pollute the environment and cause disease in people. <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> One year earlier, as Wetterhahn was transferring some dimethyl mercury to a tube, the accident occurred. She was wearing latex gloves, but they were not adequate protection against the dangerous chemical. The mercury seeped into her skin. Wetterhahn did not begin to feel the effects of the exposure until six months later. She then started losing her balance, slurring her speech, and suffering vision and hearing loss. Tests showed her system had eighty times the lethal dose of mercury. Wetterhahn died of mercury poisoning on June 8, 1997. <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Wetterhahn's death prompted some safety changes. Bright stickers on latex glove boxes should warn against using the gloves with hazardous chemicals. Workshops were held to teach proper glove selection. The dangers of dimethyl mercury were stressed. And scientists were urged to use a less dangerous chemical than dimethyl mercury. Overall, her death heightened awareness in the scientific community of potential laboratory dangers.

<span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Acknowledgements <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">http://science.jrank.org/pages/4239/Mercury-Element.html <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_%28element%29#Medicine <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">http://www.facts-about.org.uk/science-element-mercury.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">http://www.facts-about.org.uk/science-element-mercury.htm <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">http://www.thefullwiki.org/Mercury_%28element%29 <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">http://www.google.com.sg/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1405&bih=622&q=mercury+thermometer&gbv=2&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=mercury+ther <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #003399; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">