Hat makers

About 100 years ago, when people used to wear felt hats, the hat maker used mercury to process the felt. He applied the mercury to the inside of the hat brim by dipping his fingers into a pool of mercury and then rub-... 

Industrial workers often complain of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, headache, sweating, and a metallic taste in the mouth. Depending on the metals in question, there may be blue-black lines in the gum tissues and impairment of cognitive, motor, and language skills. The expression mad as a hatter comes from the mercury poisoning prevalent in seventeenth century France among hat makers, who soaked animal hides in a solution of mercuric nitrate to soften the hair. 

Mercury is a very useful chemical, and if handled properly, can be used routinely without fear. There is no need to shut down a laboratory because of a mercury spill. Clean it up immediately and continue. However, if spillage is not cleaned up, the vapors can cause chronic metal poisoning after prolonged exposure (Table 6-2). An extreme example is the old-time Hatter s disease. This occurred when hat makers treated beaver fur with HgfNOj), to permit the fiir to kink into felt. After continued exposure, the hatters often got the shakes. Anyone who shook was mad as a hatter. Mereurous compounds are much less soluble than mercuric compounds. In fact, a spoonful of calomel (Hg2Cl2) often was given... 

Straw-hat makers Picking and plaiting straw Callosities on palms and fingers... 

Accumulations of mercury in the body affect the nervous system and cause brain damage. One form of chronic mercury poisoning, "hatter s disease," was fairly common in the nineteenth century. Mercury compounds were used to convert fur to felt for making hats. Many hat makers of the time worked in hot, cramped spaces and used these compounds without special precautions. The hatters inadvertently ingested or inhaled the toxic mercury compounds while they worked. 

Government policy makers wear two hats vis-a-vis the pharmaceutical sector (1) seeking to promote economic growth by increasing national employment and income, key objectives of industrial policy, and (2) promoting personal health and life expectancy and averting the spread of pandemics, key objectives of health policy, the latter being more likely to succeed as a consequence of the widespread availability and use of innovative pharmaceutical... 

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