Mercury, commonly known as "mercury", is a dense, silvery-white, liquid metal at room temperature, which can be volatile at room temperature, and mercury vapor is easily attached to walls and clothing. Airborne mercury can enter the human body through the respiratory tract, the digestive tract, and the mucous membranes of the skin, and cause various degrees of damage to tissues and organs. The most common is to cause acute mercury poisoning of the lungs, resulting in symptoms such as headache and low-grade fever.
What is the situation of a total ban on the production of mercury-containing thermometers from 2026 What is the harm of mercury-containing thermometers
It is understood that, in 1956, in Kumamoto Prefecture, Minamata, Minamata City, near the emergence of a strange disease, the patient first slurred, unsteady walking, and finally in the pain of the death of a loud scream. This disease was called "Minamata (yǔ) disease". It was found that Minamata disease is actually organic mercury poisoning, which is caused by the consumption of toxic fish and shellfish by nearby fishermen.