good morning, kahanov, my friend: Yes it is toxic, so are many other rmetals in the proper strengths, but just what do you think Nature has been leaching into the local water for countless millions of years?
During WW-2, in the Pacific, I was a master hrizontal bombardier. I also had to over haul the Nordan bombsight. This was top secret at the time and supposedly, I was to commit suicide before revealing any data to the enemy.
As a result, when possible , we had a sealed Quonset hut - no windows etc for secrecy. We washed the basic unit in pools of open Carbon tetrachloride, now an effectively banned cancer producing product.
We used mercury in an open bowl to establish a perfect plane at that point on the earth's surface, This was necessary to calibrate the telescope's vertical.
So we washed with bare hands in open pans of a cancer producing chemical, had open continers of Mercury every where, even shot at flies with hypodemics filled wth mercury, all of this in a closed metal hut in the tropice, inside temp I could only guess, but far above 42 - 44. You can imagine the concentration of fumes of extremely, presently classified toxic materiels, yet none of us ended up as morons or died of early cancer.
Today, in the US, if you break a mercury thermometer, you must call in a toxic removal team to the cost of thousands of dollars to completely clean the house and any dirt ares next to it. ???
As a kiddie,,like all others , we loved to coat copper pennys with raw mercury and bare hands, yet we had no ill effects?
In other words Nature has been subjecting us to these metals since man first arrived on the scene, and barring certain professions where he is constantly exposed to reatively large concentrationsn, he has had very few problems.
As for Noront and her deposits, I wouldn't worry, just give the locals free vit. "C" which is an excellent Chelating agent for 'all' heavy metals, in fact I used it to eliminate Arsenic poinoning due to my carelesness in assaying - 33% As.
So invest in the ROF with a clear conscience in regards to this aspect.
Don Jose de La Mancha
