What a weird way to try to poison someone. Mercury is really only poisonous under specific circumstances. Specifically, it is extremely dangerous to breath its vapors.
Touching it, or being near a small amount of it a few feet away really doesn’t do anything. It’s a safe-ish substance to make casual contact with (still not safe, but not profoundly noxious either).
There have been cases of people surviving drinking and even injecting mercury, as it isn’t toxic the way you might think it is under most circumstances.
It is still quite a dangerous thing, and using it maliciously (even if you have no idea what you’re doing) is no joke. Fortunately, the person targeted here is likely unaffected by mercury exposure.
I mean, the article states that the victim did suffer some symptoms, so I wouldn’t say they were totally unaffected. If the article is accurate, would it be possible that she was inhaling vapor from the spill? The victim is quoted as saying she had to be at that board for 5 hours, and the Wikipedia article indicates that the primary danger of elemental mercury is inhalation of vapor (it claims 80% absorption rate via respiration, as opposed to the 1% via direct contact). Unfortunately, I am pretty ignorant of chemistry, so I’ve no idea if my speculation is plausible. How much room temp mercury would need to be sitting in front of you before you felt the effects of the vapor. Or even if you would at all, since the CDC website says the vapor is more dense than air.
Additionally, I noticed that one of the symptoms of mercury inhalation is cognitive impairment. Obviously this is more speculation, but perhaps the intent was not to kill, but rather to sabotage the victim’s play? After all, it seems like the perpetrator and the victim were rivals. Could be a Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding situation, just more classically Russian what with the use of poison rather than brute force.
What a weird way to try to poison someone. Mercury is really only poisonous under specific circumstances. Specifically, it is extremely dangerous to breath its vapors.
Touching it, or being near a small amount of it a few feet away really doesn’t do anything. It’s a safe-ish substance to make casual contact with (still not safe, but not profoundly noxious either).
There have been cases of people surviving drinking and even injecting mercury, as it isn’t toxic the way you might think it is under most circumstances.
It is still quite a dangerous thing, and using it maliciously (even if you have no idea what you’re doing) is no joke. Fortunately, the person targeted here is likely unaffected by mercury exposure.
I mean, the article states that the victim did suffer some symptoms, so I wouldn’t say they were totally unaffected. If the article is accurate, would it be possible that she was inhaling vapor from the spill? The victim is quoted as saying she had to be at that board for 5 hours, and the Wikipedia article indicates that the primary danger of elemental mercury is inhalation of vapor (it claims 80% absorption rate via respiration, as opposed to the 1% via direct contact). Unfortunately, I am pretty ignorant of chemistry, so I’ve no idea if my speculation is plausible. How much room temp mercury would need to be sitting in front of you before you felt the effects of the vapor. Or even if you would at all, since the CDC website says the vapor is more dense than air.
Additionally, I noticed that one of the symptoms of mercury inhalation is cognitive impairment. Obviously this is more speculation, but perhaps the intent was not to kill, but rather to sabotage the victim’s play? After all, it seems like the perpetrator and the victim were rivals. Could be a Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding situation, just more classically Russian what with the use of poison rather than brute force.
should’ve used dimethylmercury
And kill everyone in the building?
I don’t know what the exact rules are here, but if there’s no specific clause about it one surviving competitor is technically a win.
Cut to the chess judges frantically flipping through the rulebook like in Air Bud…
The potion of instant dementia