Chronic Effects of Mercury on Organisms:

Mercury in school classrooms


NOTE: These are notes are incomplete.
Please refer to the original for scientific research.

Mercury in School Classrooms. The micromercurialism hazard in the school environment is caused by prolonged student presence in mercury-contaminated classrooms (the secondary school plan for physics courses requires 560 hours, 350 hours for the chemistry course), but the increased sensitivity of the juvenile system to toxic action involves larger variations in susceptibility in children and adolescents. There is increased adolescent sensitivity of the vegetative nervous system, neuroendocrine degeneration, and emotional instability. Profound changes in adolescent sensitivity of the vegetative nervous system, neuroendocrine degeneration, and emotional instability. Profound changes in adolescent health and behavior may be related to the harmful influence of small concentrations of mercury. Note that in chemistry and physics courses, students use mercury containing devices. Physics and chemistry teachers should be cognizant of prophylactic measures for micromercurialism, not only during the working day, but for a long time after because of the continued presence of mercury contamination. Often physics classrooms are moved to new locations without preliminary demercurialization of general academic sites. Mercury can thus be seeded throughout the school, creating a number of secondary contamination sources. This "migration" can lead to massive contamination of the whole school building with mercury. The effective prophylaxis of mercurialism in general preparatory schools is the general task of pedagogs and physicians.