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Merc exposure
I don't think we are doing the neon industry a service by all the postings about
how awful it is to be exposed to massive doses of mercury and of merc dripping
from the walls. In fact, if some well intentioned but poorly informed beaurocrat
were to read these postings, we may soon be shut down. This talk that
"irritability" of glass blowers may be caused by mercury vapor exposure is
unsubstantiated speculation and can only hurt us. It shouldn't be a joking
matter.
Notice I said "massive doses". First let's remember that anyone of us can go to
our doctor tomorrow morning and have a test run to see if we have merc in our
system. It seems to me that older dentists should be more irritable than
glassblowers since they mixed the stuff every day -- I don't hear that they all
have kidney failure either -- or that they are mad as a hatter. Is there a
documented case of a glassblower suffering harm -- not "well maybe it just might
be a problem".
None of the wild speculation I've seen so far is very quantitative:
..... From the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (Atlanta)-
Public Health Statement: Mercury (1990) -- "The National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that the amount of inorganic
mercury be limited to 6.1 ppb (0.05 mg/ cubic meter of air) averaged over a
10-hour workshift." As perspective -- if you have a 2,000 square foot shop with
a ten foot ceiling that is completely sealed and airtight -- and you break a
tube that had 400 mg of vaporized mercury -- there would be 0.714 mg/cubic meter
of air or about 14 times the NIOSH limit for 10 hour a day, every day, exposure.
Most workplaces aren't that well sealed and the air changes many times a day. It
would seem that careful handling and ventilation will keep an already safe
industry even safer.
This same article also says that "Once mercury has entered the body, it may be
months before all of it leaves". But it does leave!
Best regards -- Jack