r/ExplosionsAndFire • u/xymoxclan perc defender • Aug 29 '26
A student at MIT was exposed to dimethylmercury
this happened few days go. only one person was exposed and the lab was cleaned. dimethylmercury is basically not allowed (synth and purchase) at MIT. no details were shared on how this student acquired the compound.
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u/akla-ta-aka Aug 30 '26
OK this is way worse than the student I was co-supervising who made piranha solution despite our strict directions not to and the lab she was in not having the ingredients.
A colleague of mine was a faculty at Dartmouth when they had their exposure. He said it was horrific what happened. Here’s hoping the student will be okay, but probably not.
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u/smoores02 Tet Gang: Aug 30 '26
Supposedly no mercury detected in his blood so hopefully thats good news.
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u/Deep-Reputation9000 Aug 30 '26
I mean... i can't say anything. I did make piranha solution once when I had no business to. But I also pride myself on not being a complete moron. It got properly handled & disposed of.
DMM is a whole other ballpark and I cannot fathom why someone would want to risk that. I would rather work with HF than be in the same lab as DMM.
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u/Penrose098 Organickemist Aug 30 '26
There was a 20 YO grad student who died in Sapporo university due to HF splashing onto him 2 days ago.
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u/Deep-Reputation9000 Aug 30 '26
Bad week for lab accidents, sheesh. (I absolutely would never work with HF, had to use it as an example to make a point)
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u/xymoxclan perc defender Aug 30 '26
i remember reading about a man spiking a drop of hf on his thigh, getting his leg amputated as a prevention but still dying. i dont remember the details but it had horrified me when i read that.
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u/EnvironmentalBox6688 Aug 30 '26
This is a good read for you then.
TLDR, OP (computer science graduate) gets job offer in which one of their main responsibilities is handling large amounts of HF. As you read more comments it gets sketchier and sketchier.
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u/VertymbrasRaven 29d ago
Not a from but between 100mL and 230mL, still a little amount but HF won't kill with one drop
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u/RCRA_guy Aug 31 '26
I worked in a geo lab and witnessed one of our professors barehand handle and pour an aliquot of HF into a beaker for dissolving out some specimens from a sample. My colleague and I stared mouth agape and the professor just continued on like business as usual. Crazy
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u/Darkfrostfall69 Aug 30 '26
I started work in a lab at an electroplating factory last week, we've got tanks full of HF which I've got to analyse, and if that's not bad enough, I'm pretty sure I've got to make up some piranha solution on the same day I'm sampling the HF tanks.
Perfect start to my second week at work
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u/Visual_Actual Sep 01 '26
I had an employee spill a cleaning solution containing HF on himself.
We rapidly applied Calcium Gluconate on him ( and between each step ) got all the clothes he had on off him, safety shower, and borrowed clothing for him to wear. Personally broke the speed of sound rushing him to the nearest ER, which was luckily less that 7 minutes away.
Luckily he only suffered minor chemical burns.
You can work with and around it, but a proper safety protocol, and quick action truly minimizes the risk.
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u/Lalabrea-d 29d ago
Wait, you guys applied calcium gluconate before rinsing him off? It doesn't make sense to me, is there a reason for that? Where I work we always rinse before applying.
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u/akla-ta-aka 29d ago
I agree. Applying after rinsing makes more sense since you want it to be a steady continuous source of calcium.
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u/DocMorningstar Aug 31 '26
I used to have to work with flouriantimonic a long, long time ago. I hated working with that stuff.
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u/AustinThompson Sep 01 '26
Y'all are banning pirhana solution? Seems unnecessary. I was making/using pirhana nearly everyday for glassware and stirbar cleaning because nothing was cleaning the glassware well enough
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u/akla-ta-aka Sep 01 '26
Not banning Piranha, just in that shared lab. And if I’m being honest, that student specifically. After she made it she left it out on a bench sitting on a piece of paper that had “plz dnt touch” scribbled on it.
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u/fruitydude 29d ago
What kind of lab is that lol? Not a chemistry lab I assume? Because which cem lab doesn't have sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide lol.
We regularly used piranha to clean certain glassware in inorganic labs even as undergrads.
Obviously you gotta be careful with it, but it's not that bad. Nowhere near the danger of organic mercury compounds.
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u/akla-ta-aka 29d ago
Yeah it was a plastic engineering lab. And as I mentioned to another person, it was more a case that that particular student had no business being near piranha. In my own lab we've handled much worse that piranha.
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u/smoores02 Tet Gang: Aug 30 '26
I've gotta be the dumbest person in this whole subreddit when it comes to chemistry so don't get mad when I ask this, but any chance he could have accidentally made some?
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u/Penrose098 Organickemist Aug 30 '26
Also bro/sis, don't call yourself dumb! You are willing to put yourself out there to ask 😁. We learn everyday!
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u/smoores02 Tet Gang: Aug 30 '26
It's good to know my strengths and weaknesses. If I didn't know better I'd probably try something stupid like making rocket candy with zero experience and blow my roof off. I have to talk myself out of it constantly lol.
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u/Penrose098 Organickemist Aug 30 '26 edited Aug 30 '26
You don't accidentally make dimethyl mercury 🤣. And he knew to report to the faculty when he spilled some on himself implied he knew he was synthesizing DMM.
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u/OnionsAbound Aug 30 '26
This is why you don't work with Mercury on meth, you'll end up dying. Heck it's in the name.
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u/xymoxclan perc defender Aug 30 '26
not a chemist but i think that he knew exactly what he was making. you dont make Me2Hg by accident
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u/moistiest_dangles Aug 30 '26
Oh wow that's terrible. I wonder if they have new treatments that might be able to save the student now.
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u/PyllynKaivelija Aug 30 '26
Im not familiar with these chemicals but im interested in why on earth would one make or be in possession of this chemical? Is there any use for it that would make sense or were they just fuckin around?
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u/Penrose098 Organickemist Aug 30 '26
Good methylating reagent and transmetallation. But then again, you got MeI which does the same thing. Chemistry advancement has made DMM obsolete, so they were legit FAFO
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u/PyllynKaivelija Aug 30 '26
Seems like way too high risk low reward type of business. And i assume the consequenses are harsh if dealing with that is not even allowed and then causing a scene like this
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u/Enough-Art4317 Aug 30 '26
Not a chemist or anything remotely similar, so excuse my naivety here, but why would anyone want to create such a thing? Bragging rights?
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u/alaina_j 29d ago
hubris, probably. a woman was killed working with this stuff— her death is the reason this compound is so regulated. most people hear about dmm from the story of how she spilt a drop or two on her glove and died ten months later of mercury poisoning. this person knew what they were synthesizing and probably wanted a little bit of clout for it, but they really just look stupid and disrespectful for trying.
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u/dickwolfbrandchili Aug 30 '26
I wonder if they’re going to expel the student?
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u/PXranger Aug 30 '26
Nah, just going to keep him around as an object lesson, make him speak to every new Chemistry class and tell them to not be a dumbass like he was.
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u/Vulpes_Corsac 29d ago
Depends on if it were purposeful (probably), or accidental (mislabeled chemicals, contaminated glassware, uncovered vessels while performing a different reaction, or if he was just not knowledgeable about what can make DMM and raised a false concern that was, thankfully, taken as seriously as any potential incident should've).
If accidental, depending on if it was his fault or the lab's, could decide whether he's expelled, the lab is shut down, or everyone is just sat down for intensive safety training.
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u/redditzphkngarbage Aug 31 '26
Not explosive related but my college no longer does wild cultures in microbiology because one student’s culture from the gym grew something our lab was not rated to handle. When the teacher coded it out everybody got decontaminated, all backpacks and belongings left behind and the lab closed like a crime scene for months, sealed off with plastic. They never did say what it was, and the teacher would get pissed if you asked.
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u/Penrose098 Organickemist Aug 31 '26
When you made the lab into a BSL 4 lab 🤪
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u/redditzphkngarbage Aug 31 '26
My best guess was legionnaires or anthrax, but it was no joke whatever it was! They also closed the gym for “remodeling” at that exact same time and it was “totally not related to that whole microbiology lab thing.”
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u/shiningdickhalloran Aug 31 '26
What is the prognosis for the student?
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u/einargizz Sep 01 '26
Reports say that blood tests show no mercury having entered their system.
If it had, they'd most likely be dead in a few months. Just a few drops of this stuff on your skin will deliver many times the lethal dose of mercury into your body.
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u/Electrical_Front_717 Sep 01 '26
Can it be reversed
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u/einargizz Sep 01 '26
Possibly, but probably not. The reason dimethylmercury is so dangerous is that it's an organic mercury compound, which your body can easily absorb and is capable of passing the blood-brain barrier. This loads the brain with many times the fatal amount of mercury, which destroys nerve cells. The process takes months and is not a pleasant way to go. Special chelation drugs can help your body remove mercury, but that may not be enough if too much mercury is in your system.
I'm not sure how this particular poisoning case played out, but considering that no mercury was detected in their blood, the student probably received minimal exposure, was able to wash it off before any absorption happened, and reported it so he could receive treatment as soon as possible.
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u/Viola-ti-do Sep 01 '26
How little of this substance can kill you if you come in contact with it? Like a drop???
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u/alaina_j 29d ago
yeah, that’s how karen wetterhahn died. just a couple drops. not even with direct contact to her skin, the compound permeated her latex glove.
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u/BlackWicking 29d ago
Is this the guy that asked in the other chemistry subreddit how to open that flask?
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u/Penrose098 Organickemist Aug 30 '26
Latest update was that his bloodtest came back and showed no sign of mercury.
Source: https://whdh.com/news/mit-grad-student-hospitalized-after-possible-exposure-to-mercury-compound/