Dimethyl Mercury Exposure Incident at MIT
A tweet from Andrew Carr reports a dimethyl mercury exposure incident at MIT, with one student directly exposed. The post describes it as a terrible tragedy. Commenters reference the infamous Karen Wetterhahn case and question the student's prognosis, noting the substance's extreme toxicity. The incident raises concerns about lab safety and the handling of highly hazardous chemicals.
It seems like there was a dimethal mercury incident on the MIT campus with one student directly exposed. A terrible tragedy and a terrible way to go.
- peri-cl
Derek Lowe has comments about this incident,
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/alleged-dimethylme... ("The Alleged Dimethylmercury Incident")
Seems the initial reporting may have been misleading. There was apparently *no* dimethylmercury exposure, after all: and MIT doubts it was synthesized in the first place.
- fortenforge
Note that it seems increasingly unlikely that it was actually synthesized.
> Emerging information calls into question whether this compound was in fact synthesized.
> while the student remains under medical supervision, their initial blood test result, which was received today, shows no sign of exposure to mercury.
Taken from https://emergency.mit.edu/
- manarth
Other "sources" (using the word loosely as their provenance is unclear)
> "based on the information available, this was a localized issue with only one student directly exposed. Their reported use of dimethyl mercury was unauthorized. MIT does not allow the purchase or synthesis of dimethyl mercury." [1]
Karen Wetterhahn's exposure and death [3] is a cautionary tale of the extreme toxicity of dimethyl mercury, and was instrumental in new safety recommendations, including strongly discouraging the use of dimethyl mercury for any purpose.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/mit/comments/1w12gb9/dimethyl_mercu...
[2] https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/hazmat-crews-respond-to...
- ButlerianJihad
Back in 1998, I scored a consulting job at a silicon plant outside of Salem, OR. Now I was working as a systems admin and I was expected to be responsible for the computer systems, which were basically located in the normal offices, rather than a dedicated machine room floor.
However, since it was an active silicon manufacturing plant, all employees and contractors were obligated to complete safety training sessions. And I swear now that these safety sessions were designed to weed out the faint-hearted guys who weren't serious about supporting this silicon brand.
The safety sessions were simple lectures, with some handouts and PowerPoints, and some of the chemicals they described were absolutely insidious stuff. They were colorless, odorless, and some could melt or disintegrate bone without noticeably affecting the skin or muscles. They said you would just end up with a limp and useless appendage if you spilled some of this stuff on you. Other stuff was highly toxic and you didn't want to breathe anything. Basically it was a big warning to just stay out of the manufacturing floor, especially if we didn't know what we were doing.
I never went near the manufacturing floor. It was a pretty cool job and I wish I lasted longer there. They couldn't scare me away with a safety session, since my Dad had worked for decades in Environmental Health and Safety. Dad knew all about the nastiest stuff and he was always responding to hazardous laboratory accidents. Dad made us the safest hom […]
- nirse
Derek Lowe mentions dimethyl mercury as the first substance that's not worth the risk:
https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/a-risk-not-worth-taki...