this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
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Lead should be red
lead's bad for you, sure, but when some of the other metals on this scale's red might literally explode your tongue/face/head depending on sample size and saliva accumulation, i'd say yellow fits it pretty well.
Nah, metallic lead is pretty solid. Licking it doesn't really do much. You shouldn't ingest lead, but you don't really ingest it by licking a piece of metal.
Same with metallic mercury. But once it evaporates....
Well, when you lick mercury, you're actually going to swallow a lot of it. Thankfully, you'll poop most of it out, and as long as you do it once, it won't kill you.
But if I had to pick between licking lead or mercury, I'd go with lead.
Oh yeah. I am om team lead. The problem with Mercury is the vapor that ridiculously easy methylates when heated, and then you have a nerve toxin that quite easily crosses the blood-brain barrier.
Idk, just licking it once shouldn't do much harm, right?
Given the choice between licking mercury and licking lead, 96% of respondents answered with lead.
Apologies for the random percentage and quoting fictional data.
look at this shill from the big metal licking industry
https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/physiological_effects.html
I'd call that "you really shouldn't" for an adult, and for a baby I'd tell them to "please reconsider" for sure
I have a toddler and I hope to dear god there's no lead about. She will lick anything.
It isn't safe at any dose but the amount of harm from licking it once is definitely rather small. Probably safer than having a couple of alcoholic drinks or a single cigarette.
The inside of your mouth is on the outside of your body and so is the rest of your digestive tract, safely (well) isolated (unless it's permeable) from your bloodstream. As a first approximation, our bodies are toruses. Just licking something is really not much more intimate than touching something unless it's sugar which can be taken up right there on the spot. (At least glucose can and there's enzymes in salvia don't ask me for details).
All that said the Romans used lead(II) acetate as a sweetener and while definitely a bad idea, they didn't all immediately keel over either. You'll almost certainly be fine.
Pure water OTOH... you'll burn your mouth because osmotic pressure tearing cell walls apart before the stuff dilutes to have a sensible amount of minerals in it. The tissue there is used to sudden violent cell death and heals quickly so no biggie, if you survived a too hot pizza you'll survive water. Also, do eat that pizza to have enough minerals to replenish everything.