{"id":13899,"date":"2022-01-04T14:50:45","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T20:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/?p=13899"},"modified":"2022-01-05T13:38:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T19:38:41","slug":"what-is-mercury-metal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Mercury Metal?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Mercury is fascinating, toxic and must be tested for using approved methods.<\/h2>\n<p>Mercury metal has a history full of fascination and wonder. The ancient alchemists considered it the original metal and used large quantities of it in their attempts at transmutation. It was used to construct reflecting pools and decorative fountains in the courtyards of kings. In more modern times, it was used in thermometers, thermostats, and as parabolic mirrors in telescopes. Today mercury is not used as it once was due to its toxicity. Because of mercury\u2019s tendency to accumulate in organisms, it can have very long lasting and slow developing negative health effects.<\/p>\n<h2>Proper sampling and storage are important<\/h2>\n<p>While proper sampling and storage techniques are important in any analytical process, it is even more important in the case of mercury. In the mid 1980s, scientists discovered that the previously reported levels of mercury in the environment were biased high, sometimes by as much as three orders of magnitude. It was found that, outside of areas in which mercury was being mined, the highest concentration of the metal was to be found in and around man-made artifacts. Paints, electrical components, lighting fixtures, thermometers, thermostats, and batteries were among the common contributors to ambient contamination. Conditions were often worse in the laboratories performing the analyses due to mercury-based reagents and equipment with mercury containing parts being even more prevalent. Lack of knowledge as to the true environmental amounts coupled with mercury\u2019s volatility made unintentional contamination of the analysis unavoidable.<\/p>\n<h2 data-aura-rendered-by=\"12:669;a\">Hazardous to work with<\/h2>\n<p data-aura-rendered-by=\"12:669;a\">Take caution if you are working with mercury. The reagents used in mercury analysis, particularly low level mercury, are especially hazardous to work with. Be sure to pay special attention to all safety issues and ensure proper s<a href=\"\/c\/safety-products\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">afety products<\/a> are in place at all times. The mercury standards in and of themselves can be dangerous, while the BrCl, hydroxylamine hydrochloride, and stannous chloride all give off noxious fumes that can severely irritate the respiratory tract.<\/p>\n<p data-aura-rendered-by=\"12:669;a\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.environmentalexpress.com\/ee\/s\/article\/understanding-mercury\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Learn more about mercury metal and approved methods.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-aura-rendered-by=\"12:669;a\"><a href=\"\/blog\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12311 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CP_MA_Bottom_Blog-reminder-for-blog.jpg\" alt=\"Sign up for blog banner\" width=\"600\" height=\"100\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p data-aura-rendered-by=\"12:669;a\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">Featured Image: Marmall4, CC BY-SA 4.0 &lt;https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-aura-rendered-by=\"12:669;a\">\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mercury is fascinating, toxic and must be tested for using approved methods. Mercury metal has a history full of fascination and wonder. The ancient alchemists considered it the original metal and used large quantities of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":13911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Mercury Metal? | Antylia Scientific Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Elemental mercury metal, one once used in many products, is fascinating yet toxic. Know more about this metal and how to test for it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is Mercury Metal? | Antylia Scientific Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elemental mercury metal, one once used in many products, is fascinating yet toxic. Know more about this metal and how to test for it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cole-Parmer Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antylia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-04T20:50:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-05T19:38:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Elemental_mercury.jpg?fit=350%2C350&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cole-Parmer Blog Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@antylia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@antylia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cole-Parmer Blog Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What is Mercury Metal? | Antylia Scientific Blog","description":"Elemental mercury metal, one once used in many products, is fascinating yet toxic. Know more about this metal and how to test for it.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What is Mercury Metal? | Antylia Scientific Blog","og_description":"Elemental mercury metal, one once used in many products, is fascinating yet toxic. Know more about this metal and how to test for it.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/","og_site_name":"Cole-Parmer Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antylia","article_published_time":"2022-01-04T20:50:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-05T19:38:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":350,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Elemental_mercury.jpg?fit=350%2C350&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cole-Parmer Blog Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@antylia","twitter_site":"@antylia","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cole-Parmer Blog Team","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/"},"author":{"name":"Cole-Parmer Blog Team","@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/bd8d004d4d77d6b31800fa11177c6da9"},"headline":"What is Mercury Metal?","datePublished":"2022-01-04T20:50:45+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-05T19:38:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/"},"wordCount":359,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Elemental_mercury.jpg","articleSection":["Environmental"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/","url":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/","name":"What is Mercury Metal? | Antylia Scientific Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Elemental_mercury.jpg","datePublished":"2022-01-04T20:50:45+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-05T19:38:41+00:00","description":"Elemental mercury metal, one once used in many products, is fascinating yet toxic. Know more about this metal and how to test for it.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Elemental_mercury.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Elemental_mercury.jpg","width":350,"height":350,"caption":"Elemental mercury"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/what-is-mercury-metal\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What is Mercury Metal?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/","name":"Cole-Parmer Blog","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Antylia Scientific","url":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.coleparmer.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/AntyliaScientific_CMYK.jpg?fit=400%2C107&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.coleparmer.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/AntyliaScientific_CMYK.jpg?fit=400%2C107&ssl=1","width":400,"height":107,"caption":"Antylia Scientific"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antylia","https:\/\/x.com\/antylia","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/antylia\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC41i86hGEGhQhM1KMqrDnZg"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/bd8d004d4d77d6b31800fa11177c6da9","name":"Cole-Parmer Blog Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34e3e6aa661d0e443fb9050a9175a092?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34e3e6aa661d0e443fb9050a9175a092?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cole-Parmer Blog Team"},"url":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/author\/donna-donahue\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13899"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13928,"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13899\/revisions\/13928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}