ABSTRACT
Dimethylmercury was first made in 1858 by George Buckton of the Royal College of Chemistry in London, who somehow managed to avoid being poisoned by it. In contrast, two English chemists who made it in 1865 were dead within months. After the death of Karen Wetterhahn, tests showed that dimethylmercury could go through ordinary laboratory rubber gloves within seconds; anyone using dimethylmercury must wear highly resistant laminated gloves underneath a pair of heavy-duty gloves. Mercury is a ‘soft acid’ so that it binds to easily polarizable donor atoms in ‘soft’ bases. This gives the mercury ion a high affinity for sulfur and sulfur-containing ligands. People used mercury and its compounds to treat syphilis. Grain had been treated with methylmercury compounds as a fungicide, and should have been planted. The fish eat so much of the contaminated plankton, and they excrete the mercury so slowly, that it gradually builds up in their systems.
