Latest "scare" issue by teh FDA regulators...salt content in medications, both prescription and OTC. A longish boring documentary was on today hyping the issue as a significant problem, with itty bitty notice that the principle medicinal use for salt is in the "soda" and "seltzer" types that usually are dissolved in water (...e.g., they are soluble) . They showed images of bottle OTC tablet meds like Tylenol, and cited pill forms of prescription meds which are never dissolved or considered "soluble." In short they lied by implication to you and me. Again.
You have been warned. The FDA and H&HS are looking for new bad guys to harass.
BTW...the issue was raised by the British National Health Service after they did a years long study of their proles. Noteworthy is that no actual findings or statistics were cited...the documentary just assures you that salt is bad for you.
I have a suggestion to green weenies in the health field: try living for two years with zero salt. I'll wait, with shovel in hand to bury you.
I worked for a time with a Töpler pump (mercury pump). It was a way to measure and isolate noncondensible gases like methane and CO. That was quite the volume. Mercury thermometers were still common when I was a kid and so was mercurochrome, an antiseptic. Another job I had involved mercury catalysts for making methanol from methane. I handled grams and grams of methylmercury without incident.
It is an interesting element. Like asbestos, it has many wonderful and useful applications and also has potential toxic effects. You handled methyl mercury without incident, yet that woman just had two drops of dimethylmercury hit her gloved hand and it killed her.
But a metal that is a liquid at room temperature is fascinating alone.
But a metal that is a liquid at room temperature is fascinating alone.
It really is like a noble metal. It is the first element with completely filled 4f, 5d and 6s sub shells. If you look up, down, left, and right on the Periodic Table around it you see why. Cadmium. lacks the filled 4f which makes its valance electrons easier to ionize. Copernicum, which lies below Hg, may be a gas at room temperature and pressure despite being more massive but it's all radioactive. Gold, one element to the left, has an unfilled 6s shell which is why it is harder and a better conductor. Thallium, one element to the right has a 6p electron which is easily lost.
Gallium metal melts at a few degrees above ambient temperature. A British ex-pat told me a story once about the metal. Rather than retell it, I'll just link.
Apparently the solution is to ban the environment, or, failing that, volcanoes.
ReplyDeleteI remember playing with it in science class as a kid. Of course, that might explain a lot.
DeleteI played with it some as a kid too--my grandfather had a vial of it in his workshop. And of course...there were always broken thermometers.
DeleteLOL.
Yes, "playing with it". My first thought when I read the "deadly" part. It's not so deadly. You don't need to drink it or rub it into open wounds.
ReplyDeleteLiquid mercury is poorly absorbed and as a result, relatively benign compared to some mercury compounds (which are truly deadly) or vaporized mercury.
DeleteLatest "scare" issue by teh FDA regulators...salt content in medications, both prescription and OTC. A longish boring documentary was on today hyping the issue as a significant problem, with itty bitty notice that the principle medicinal use for salt is in the "soda" and "seltzer" types that usually are dissolved in water (...e.g., they are soluble) . They showed images of bottle OTC tablet meds like Tylenol, and cited pill forms of prescription meds which are never dissolved or considered "soluble." In short they lied by implication to you and me. Again.
ReplyDeleteYou have been warned. The FDA and H&HS are looking for new bad guys to harass.
BTW...the issue was raised by the British National Health Service after they did a years long study of their proles. Noteworthy is that no actual findings or statistics were cited...the documentary just assures you that salt is bad for you.
DeleteI have a suggestion to green weenies in the health field: try living for two years with zero salt. I'll wait, with shovel in hand to bury you.
I worked for a time with a Töpler pump (mercury pump). It was a way to measure and isolate noncondensible gases like methane and CO. That was quite the volume. Mercury thermometers were still common when I was a kid and so was mercurochrome, an antiseptic. Another job I had involved mercury catalysts for making methanol from methane. I handled grams and grams of methylmercury without incident.
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting element. Like asbestos, it has many wonderful and useful applications and also has potential toxic effects. You handled methyl mercury without incident, yet that woman just had two drops of dimethylmercury hit her gloved hand and it killed her.
DeleteBut a metal that is a liquid at room temperature is fascinating alone.
But a metal that is a liquid at room temperature is fascinating alone.
DeleteIt really is like a noble metal. It is the first element with completely filled 4f, 5d and 6s sub shells. If you look up, down, left, and right on the Periodic Table around it you see why. Cadmium. lacks the filled 4f which makes its valance electrons easier to ionize. Copernicum, which lies below Hg, may be a gas at room temperature and pressure despite being more massive but it's all radioactive. Gold, one element to the left, has an unfilled 6s shell which is why it is harder and a better conductor. Thallium, one element to the right has a 6p electron which is easily lost.
True. Also asbestos is not an element, but a variety of silicate compounds.
DeleteGallium metal melts at a few degrees above ambient temperature. A British ex-pat told me a story once about the metal. Rather than retell it, I'll just link.
ReplyDeletefacinating
Delete