Lead removal - with mercury?

[Mauser George]

Piet:

I am 53 and as kids we used to play with mercury. My father used to bring Mercury home from work and we would have a blast playing with it, great fun. It did a nice job cleaning silver coins as well. Amazing how one would tap it and would separate in many smaller droplets of Mercury and then just reabsorb itself. As of today I do not believe I have any ill effects from it. Yet no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

My Mother lived till she was 86 and Dad till 94 and they as well as my 6 siblings all lived in the same residence.

Everyone says it is bad, yet it's effects on the human body are not mentioned, so my guess no one knows it true effects. Asbestos is another one of those items that is a bad word, yet folks been around it for years and never any ill effects so go figure.

Here is what I found without spending much time researching the effects of Mercury on the human body:

Health & Fitness
Data now suggest mercury effects might occur at levels lower than anyone suspected. Some studies show that children who were exposed to tiny amounts of mercury in utero have slower reflexes, language deficits, and shortened attention spans.

In adults, recent studies show a possible link between heart disease and mercury ingested from eating fish. Other groups claim mercury exposure is responsible for Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, and the escalating rate of autism.

I have also heard that Mercury will dissolve and bond with the lead thus removing it from the barrel. However I have never tried this so no idea if it works or not.

I would agree with everyone and stay away from using Mercury or exposing your household to it. Your possible loss is by far greater than your gain in this case.

Good luck and Merry Christmas.

Regards,

George