They Did What!?!

Things certainly have changed in the last century or so. Technology has improved and medical breakthroughs have been discovered. And in the process, many things that we used to do as children have now become extremely dangerous, given these improvements.

Mercury

Take Mercury as an example. Who can forget how fun it was to play with that little ball of Mercury as a child?

I remember whenever our thermometers would break, my parents would carefully separate the broken glass from the metal.

Then after collecting all those tiny balls, allow us to play with it using our bare hands for hours on end.

We’d squish it, squash it, mash it, and flick it all over our table tops. We’d try to see if pressing it between our fingers could make it a shape other than those perfect tiny circles they always form.

And when we drop it from a few inches, marvel how it all comes back together by simply tilting the paper they are on.

It never gets dirty and always maintains that mirror-like finish of silver. And it is always cold to the touch, no matter how many time it gets rolled on the table.

Who would have thought that Mercury poisoning is one of the most dangerous things there is. Not only does it destroy the nerves, but it also can cause kidney damage.

Irradiated Water

Whoever though of this probably thought he was a genius.

If you ever had comic books or even had old books, you may have come across an advertisement on water that was intentionally made radioactive.

The drinking the water regularly was advertised to have a long list of cure-alls. From lethargy, to colds, to even deadly diseases, radioactive water was the cure.

But as more and more research was being done on radioactivity, no doubt brought about by the cold war, the dangers of irradiated water began to catch on.

Advertisements now switched from getting cured to becoming mutants with multiple arms and legs. Why even Spiderman had the great fortune, or from his point of view, misfortune of being bitten by a radioactive spider and gaining super powers.

Lead

This element was used for just about anything back in the twentieth century.

It was used in paint for cars and houses to make it last longer. It was used as coatings behind mirrors so the silver portion doesn’t chip off and for metal so it doesn’t rust easily.

Back in the old days, it was used to seal canned food, in water pipes, and even to create gastronomically delightful food.

Alchemist even believed that lead could be turned into gold. And even Superman uses lead to shield himself from Kryptonite. In fact it was so effective in the comic books, that his X-ray vision cannot see through it.

Lead is now considered toxic and has been linked to mental retardation, convulsions and comas. Like Mercury, it can damage the nervous system and kidneys. It may also affect reproduction.

Due to its widespread use over the centuries, it still is present with us. And given its easy ability to recycle, will most probably be the same thing that was around centuries ago.

Today, it is still used as weights to balance tires and to seal metal radiators so they don’t leak. Bullets are made out of them and competition boats use them to stay upright. It is also used as solder for electronic equipment or by hobbyists. It is even present in limited degrees in gasoline.

Well things certainly have changed with the advent of time. Who knows, maybe some of the things we are using today will become dangerous in the future. I just hope that when that day comes, it’s not our pictures that will be posted on articles like this.