I learned a lot about mercury from reading this article. First, I learned that mercury is the silver liquid inside thermometers. It is also used in making neon lights, because the boys in the article found the mercury in an old factory that used the make neon lights. I also learned that mercury is a poison that can be absorbed through vapors or when it comes in contact with skin. It can cause people to develop nervous twitches, drooling, and problems with speech. If you smoke it, like one of the boys in the article did, you can cough up blood. The fumes from the mercury killed a dog, because the vapors settle on the floor. I learned that mercury should be left alone, even if it might be fun to play with.
I think the main lesson to be learned is to leave stuff alone that you don’t know anything about. In the article, the boys found the mercury, and they did not know it was poison. They thought it was fun to play with, and they took it to school, poured it on themselves, smoked it, and poured it on the floors in their homes. They caused a dog to die from the fumes, lots of people to get sick, eight homes to be evacuated and cleared out of all their furniture, plus a lot of other problems. If those boys had left it alone, or asked someone to identify what they had found, or done a little research on it before they started messing with it, they would not have caused all that trouble. That is the lesson I learned, to not mess with stuff I don’t know anything about.