How to Treat Mercury Poisoning

Mercury is a stable element and cannot be broken down or otherwise destroyed. Elemental mercury is harmless unless inhaled as a vapor, but many organic compounds of mercury are toxic, with dimethyl mercury being one of the most poisonous substances known. The following steps will help you identify and treat a case of mercury poisoning.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Know the symptoms of mercury poisoning from inhalation. Chronic low-level inhalation of the vapor can cause bleeding gums, coughing, difficulty breathing, a metallic taste and vomiting. Sufficient exposure can cause permanent lung and brain damage.
2. Watch for symptoms of ingested mercury. Inorganic compounds of mercury are usually poisonous and produce symptoms quickly. These include burning in the throat and stomach, bloody diarrhea and vomiting. Organic compounds of mercury typically require long-term exposure to cause symptoms, usually in the form of neurological damage.
3. Measure the mercury levels in the blood as a presumptive test. Mercury levels are not always a definitive test because the mercury binds so tightly to compounds stored in the liver and kidneys.
4. Administer humidified oxygen, suction the mercury out of the lungs or begin chelation therapy for inhaled mercury. These methods may have only limited success as inhaled mercury is difficult to treat.
5. Treat inorganic mercury poisoning with supportive care. Administer fluids intravenously and medication to treat the symptom. Activated charcoal may be given if the ingestion was recent and chelation therapy may be started.
6. Begin long-term chelation therapy for poisoning by organic mercury compounds. Prolonged exposure is particularly dangerous to children and can cause irreversible neurological damage.