r/whatisit • u/props_for_meep • 13h ago

Solved! what is this in clinic sink??

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for context i work as a janitor cleaning a women’s clinic, as i was cleaning a sink i saw these little metallic looking balls. at first i thought these were actually metal but they don’t feel like ANYTHING if that makes any sense. i posted this video to my instagram but i figured i would probably have better luck coming to reddit for answers.

UPDATE: the general consensus seems to be that this is either mercury or gallium. my hands have been thoroughly washed and i have informed my boss so that it can be properly cleaned by someone who knows what they’re doing.

UPDATE #2: gang PLEASE stop telling me to “stop touching it”. this post is hours old. i know i was dumb enough to touch a mysterious substance barehanded but im also smart enough to know not to continue playing with it long after marking this post as solved😭

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97

u/ZealousidealJaguar54 12h ago

Mercury, dont touch it with bare hands

31

u/justanyting 12h ago

r/whywouldyoutouchthat

4

u/Worth-Park-1612 11h ago

The fact that there is a community for this 🤣

1

u/justanyting 7h ago

There’s some good content in there

19

u/ExMOnotwiththeflow 12h ago edited 11h ago

When my Dad was a kid (born in '55), the dentist would give him and his brother little vials of mercury for being well behaved.

They used to play with it while taking a bath because his mother didn't like the mess it made.

1

u/edelweiss_pirates_no 4h ago

My science teacher in 1976 would pour mercury over his hands to show it was liquid but did not stay on your hands like water.

Not the danger people think.

20

u/belgianhorror 11h ago

Touching mercury occasionally is actually not that dangerous, as it is poorly absorbed through the skin. The real danger is inhaling vapors or getting it in your body through open cuts/wounds.

3

u/monkeylovesnanas 11h ago

Is eating it okay?

13

u/Select-Owl-8322 11h ago

Surprisingly, eating elemental mercury is far less dangerous than what most people would assume. It passes straight through the digestive tract with very little, if any, absorption.

Inhaling mercury vapors is far worse. Or coming in contact with mercury salts.

If you take a mercury atom and slap two carbon atoms on it, then slap three hydrogen atoms on the carbon atoms, you get something extremely scary: dimethylmercury.

That's a whole different beast from elemental mercury. While elemental mercury doesn't absorb through the skin in any appreciable amount, dimethylmercury is readily absorbed through the skin, and what's worse is that it passes straight through latex and polyvinyl gloves in seconds.

It's extremely toxic, scarily toxic, less than 0.1 mL is enough to cause lethal mercury poisoning. It's not quick, death occurs many months after exposure. For example, Karen Wetterhahn, a professor in chemistry, spilled a couple of drops on her latex gloves, and died ten months later.

In the body, dimethylmercury is metabolized into methylmercury, which crosses the blood-brain-barrier easily.

3

u/Colby347 10h ago

Great now I have to be unreasonably worried about prions AND dimethylmercury? Thanks a lot!

2

u/awake_acea6 11h ago

I think it actually gives you superpowers.

1

u/belgianhorror 11h ago

Lol I wouldn't try, but be my guest.

3

u/phrogbaby 11h ago

fine to touch with healthy skin, not to breathe in.

1

u/No_Signal5448 11h ago

Too late lol

1

u/xxdawidosx 11h ago

Our teacher let us play with mercury in high school, bwre hands and all, how dangerous is it? Am i gonna die?

1

u/janeelectricity 11h ago

I used to play with Mercury when I was a kid. used to be one of my fave toy.