[Catalist] A Very Hazardous Chemistry Demonstration of Reaction of Al with Hg

[Michael McGarry]

Greetings Science Colleagues,

From an Occupational Health and Safety [OHS] perspective, I am troubled by this RSC Chemistry experiment of the Reaction of Aluminium [Al] with Mercury [Hg].

RSC URL: https://eic.rsc.org/exhibition-chemistry/the-real-reactivity-of-aluminium/2020076.article <https://eic.rsc.org/exhibition-chemistry/the-real-reactivity-of-aluminium/2020076.article>
I was alerted to this extremely hazardous experiment, in my professional opinion, when I read this COSMOS magazine article from my email subscription to COSMOS Magazine.

CM URL: https://cosmosmagazine.com/chemistry/when-aluminium-meets-mercury <https://cosmosmagazine.com/chemistry/when-aluminium-meets-mercury>
NCBI URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4344667/ <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4344667/>
I am also troubled by the apparent disregard of required OHS procedures by the fellow who calls himself NILERED in his Video Clip of the reaction of Al and Hg.

FACEBOOK URL: https://www.facebook.com/NileRed1/ <https://www.facebook.com/NileRed1/> You can also find NileRed’s videos on YouTube.

In my professional opinion the hazardous reaction of aluminium with mercury should never be demonstrated in a secondary school chemistry laboratory. What is your opinion?

Thanks and Best Wishes,

Michael John McGarry

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.stawa.net/pipermail/catalist_lists.stawa.net/attachments/20170905/907b4933/attachment.html>