Mercury and thermometers

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dc.contributor.authorMyers, JE
dc.date.accessioned2018-10-02T08:13:49Z
dc.date.available2018-10-02T08:13:49Z
dc.date.issued2005
dc.date.updated2016-01-14T14:01:52Z
dc.description.abstractMany colleagues who have worked in casualty departments or emergency rooms will have encountered anxious parents bearing fragments of glass thermometers that do not include the mercury-containing bulb, and whose children are presumably suffering from indigestion or worse. Many of those colleagues will have found the parental anxiety infectious. Mercury is after all known to be a very toxic substance. An X-ray of the abdomen reveals the offending object. What is to be done? Purge? Operate? Chelate? Or is masterly inactivity indicated? The condition associated with acute and chronic mercury poisoning is named mercurialism. It is a combination of neurological symptoms and signs that include an erratic paranoid behavioural disturbance named erethism. Perhaps the proverbial mercurial personality is not a metaphor for mercury rising and falling in a thermometer tube, but rather refers to erethism. Renal and haematological effects are also described.
dc.identifier.apacitationMyers, J. (2005). Mercury and thermometers. <i>South African Medical Journal</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28859en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationMyers, JE "Mercury and thermometers." <i>South African Medical Journal</i> (2005) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28859en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationMyers, J. (2008). Mercury and thermometers. South African Medical Journal, 95(10), 772. doi:10.7196/SAMJ.1857
dc.identifier.ris TY - AU - Myers, JE AB - Many colleagues who have worked in casualty departments or emergency rooms will have encountered anxious parents bearing fragments of glass thermometers that do not include the mercury-containing bulb, and whose children are presumably suffering from indigestion or worse. Many of those colleagues will have found the parental anxiety infectious. Mercury is after all known to be a very toxic substance. An X-ray of the abdomen reveals the offending object. What is to be done? Purge? Operate? Chelate? Or is masterly inactivity indicated? The condition associated with acute and chronic mercury poisoning is named mercurialism. It is a combination of neurological symptoms and signs that include an erratic paranoid behavioural disturbance named erethism. Perhaps the proverbial mercurial personality is not a metaphor for mercury rising and falling in a thermometer tube, but rather refers to erethism. Renal and haematological effects are also described. DA - 2005 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - South African Medical Journal LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2005 T1 - Mercury and thermometers TI - Mercury and thermometers UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28859 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/28859
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationMyers J. Mercury and thermometers. South African Medical Journal. 2005; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28859.en_ZA
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher.departmentPublic Health and Family Medicine
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Health Sciences
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.sourceSouth African Medical Journal
dc.titleMercury and thermometers
dc.typeJournal Article
uct.type.filetype
uct.type.filetypeText
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