A little accident is enough - and now the mercury thermometer or lamp is broken. The dangerous substance evaporates quickly and can cause serious harm to the body. The consequences of mercury vapor poisoning are extremely unpleasant, in some cases it is worth entrusting your health to a doctor.
In addition, knowing how to handle broken mercury devices, how to
treat mercury poisoning, symptoms and diagnosis in such a situation will never be superfluous.
How can trouble happen?
Unfortunately, not only broken thermometers can cause mercury poisoning. Diagnosis of this problem may be required even after eating conventional foods such as fish and bread. Grains can be treated with herbicides, and seafood is infected due to water pollution. There is also mercury in cigarettes; it can fall to the ground with precipitation or evaporate from undetected ore deposits. If you suspect mercury poisoning, the symptoms are the same as described - immediately seek the help of a specialist. In the opposite case, the outcome can be extremely unsafe for health.
How dangerous is this?
You may have acute or chronic mercury poisoning.
Symptoms of chronic may not appear for a very long time. If you have the smallest droplets of mercury left after a broken thermometer, fumes can affect the body even when the problem is already forgotten. They enter through the lungs or skin. At the same time, it is safe for the stomach - if you drank balls of mercury, the substance would leave the body unchanged. But mercury salts would already harm the body. So, if evaporation occurs little by little, but for a long time, and you already have chronic mercury poisoning, the symptoms will be as follows: irritability and
fatigue, frequent headaches and drowsiness will appear, memory will begin to deteriorate. Limbs may tremble, eating habits may change, skin sensitivity may appear, bleeding gums or excess saliva are also on the list. A blood test will show reduced hemoglobin and red blood cells. In pregnant women, poisoning can harm the fetus. When acute mercury poisoning occurs, symptoms appear much faster. These include weakness and headaches, fever, abdominal and intestinal pain, and kidney damage.
Pneumonia develops, the lungs swell. The nervous system and gastrointestinal tract begin to break down. Accidental ingestion of mercury preparations in the mouth leads to severe pain, bleeding, nausea and vomiting, and acute renal failure.
A fatal outcome can also occur if there was severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms will appear very quickly, and even doctors may not have time to provide the necessary help. In milder cases, the body will recover in three weeks. Emergency care involves drinking large amounts of water to induce vomiting when mercury products enter the stomach. Unitiol (universal antidote) is introduced into the body, the stomach is washed, and the mouth is treated with a potassium permanganate solution. In no case should you delay with a visit to a doctor.