March Madness: Mercury Poisoning
The fun continues here at YouTube Digger as we continue looking at YouTube clips devoted to various aspects of madness. Today, we’ll take a look at mercury poisoning. Hey, you can’t blame all forms of madness on genetics (such as you can with some forms of mental illness that induces psychosis.)
Mercury (or quicksilver) used to be a comon element in many industries, but now it’s being phased out due to risks of mercury poisoning. Even dental fillings are starting to come in other materials other than the usual quasi-reliable mercury fillings. However, mercury is now being blamed for everything from autism to bad plot lines in soap operas.
So, what are the symptoms opf mercury poisoning? They vary from person to person, but here’s a dramatic example. Tell you the truth, I have no idea of the background of this clip. But the film-maker claims that the person filmed is suffering from mercury poisoning:
If you ever wondered why the Hatter was Mad in Alice In Wonderland, it was because of overexposure to mercury (not because he was angry). For many years, mercury was a crucial ingredient in hatmaking. The tough material was put in vats that contained mercury in order to soften them up into felt. It’s possible that the mecury poisoning happened through breathing mercury fumes while on the job as opposed to direct contact with it.
Well, at this point I’d hoped to have a short clip on hatmaking done in the mercury days, but the closest thign I could find was a gossip promo showing Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland, due in 2010.
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