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Demystify: 

People may remember the recent C&EN article commerating the 25th anniversary of Dr. Karen Wetterhahn from dimethyl mercury poisoning. While preparing to talk with lab people about this event, I wondered if dimethyl mercury is still being used in laboratories in 2022, or if it is used in a way to better control the DMM toxicity hazard.

I know that environmental chemists at Oak Ridge National Lab are continuing to study the fate of historical mercury emissions from the lab (see "ORNL scientists solve the mystery of mercury' at
https://www.ornl.gov/blog/ornl-review/ornl-scientists-solve-mystery-mercury#:~:text=Tracking%20down%20the%20lost%20mercury%20in%20the%20Oak,to%20a%20more%20toxic%2C%20organic%20form%20called%20methylmercury. for some scary numbers about how mercury waste was handled in the 1950s and 1960s); does anyone happen to know if they are likely to use different analytical methods for this work?

Thanks for any information about this.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org

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