A few drops of the chemical splashed onto her gloves and killed her in just 15 seconds. What could be so poisonous?

What kind of chemical can cause great harm to the human body just by a few drops splashing on the gloves?

You may think that there are many such chemicals, such as concentrated sulfuric acid or aqua regia. Indeed, these chemicals are very dangerous, but their danger mainly comes from their strong corrosiveness. However, there is a chemical that splashes on gloves. The gloves are intact, but it can kill people in just 15 seconds. What is this? In the scientific community, the dangers faced by chemists have always been the highest. In history, there have been many outstanding chemists who have dedicated their health and lives to scientific research, and Karen Witthahn is one of them. Karen worked at Dartmouth College and was one of the most outstanding metal toxicity researchers in the world at that time. No one would have thought that her scientific research career would come to an abrupt end in August 1996.

That day, Karen was doing experiments in the laboratory as usual. As the world's top expert in metal toxicity research at the time, Karen naturally knew the dangers of the experiment, so before the experiment began, she had taken strict precautions. However, she would never have thought that these seemingly complete protective measures could not save her from the impending tragedy.

At the time, Karen was using dimethylmercury to calibrate the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, and accidentally splashed a few drops of dimethylmercury solution onto her gloves. As a top metal toxicity research expert, Karen knew very well that dimethylmercury was a highly toxic chemical, so she quickly and methodically placed the dimethylmercury solution in a proper place, then took off her gloves and began to rinse her hands with clean water.

From the time the dimethylmercury solution splashed onto the gloves to the time Karen took off the gloves, the whole process took only about 15 seconds, but Karen would never have thought that it was these short 15 seconds that would cost her life.

After Karen rinsed her hands with clean water, she did not find anything unusual on her hands. In addition, the dimethylmercury solution did not directly touch her hands, but only splashed a few drops on her gloves, so Karen did not pay too much attention to it. After a simple inspection, she continued to work. In the first few days after the accident, Karen did not feel anything unusual in her body, so she quickly forgot about the accident. However, after a few weeks, some symptoms began to show up.

At first, Karen just felt that she occasionally walked unsteadily, then she developed blurred vision, and then even had difficulty expressing herself in language.

In fact, the appearance of these symptoms in any ordinary person would have aroused enough vigilance, but Karen was different. She was a chemist who worked day and night, so she thought these symptoms were just caused by her overwork. In addition, the accident had long been forgotten by Karen, so Karen did not have a physical examination in time. Unfortunately, rest did not restore Karen's health, and various symptoms became more and more severe. The situation deteriorated rapidly, so she had to go to the hospital for examination. The test results showed that the mercury content in Karen's blood had exceeded the normal value by 4,000 times, which was undoubtedly mercury poisoning.

How could it be mercury poisoning? Karen did not recall the accident, and her condition continued to deteriorate. Before she fell into a coma, Karen finally remembered and realized that all this was caused by dimethylmercury, but everything was too late to save her, and Karen eventually died in extreme pain.

What is dimethylmercury? Why is it so toxic? Dimethylmercury is the most dangerous organic mercury compound. It has extremely strong permeability, so traditional latex gloves can't provide any protection at all. It only takes a few seconds for dimethylmercury to penetrate latex gloves, so 15 seconds is enough for it to penetrate into Karen's skin. So how did dimethylmercury poison Karen? We know that our bodies are always in oxidation, and the more oxygen-consuming organs are, the faster the oxidation rate. In order to fight this oxidation, there is a thioredoxin reductase in our bodies that can protect cells from damage by free radicals.

Dimethylmercury will cause the inactivation of thioredoxin reductase when it enters the body. The brain is a high oxygen consumption organ. After losing the protection of the reductase, oxidation will cause a large number of neurons to die. Therefore, dimethylmercury has a very strong corrosive effect on the nervous system.

After Karen's tragedy, the danger of dimethylmercury has been taken seriously, and since then, all experiments involving dimethylmercury have required wearing special gloves twice. Researchers should be careful with dimethylmercury, and as ordinary people, we should also be vigilant against this dangerous chemical, because once dimethylmercury enters the body, it will firmly adhere to it and gradually decompose into another harmful substance "methylmercury". If organisms at the top of the food chain eat a lot of contaminated food, the pollutants will accumulate in their bodies. This is bioaccumulation, so the higher the level of organisms, the more pollutants are enriched in their bodies. According to existing research, methylmercury in the human body mainly comes from seafood, and the higher the seafood is in the food chain, the more serious the pollution is, such as sharks.

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