What Are the Symptoms of Mercury Poisoning?
It depends on the form of mercury. The EPA says metallic mercury mainly causes health effects when inhaled as a vapor, and lists symptoms of prolonged or acute exposure including tremors, emotional changes such as mood swings and irritability, insomnia, neuromuscular changes such as weakness and twitching, headaches, disturbances in sensations and poor performance on tests of mental function. For methylmercury, it lists possible symptoms including loss of peripheral vision, pins and needles feelings, lack of coordination, impairment of speech, hearing and walking, and muscle weakness.
The EPA says the most common way people in the US are exposed to mercury is by eating fish containing methylmercury, and that other exposures can come from using or breaking products that contain mercury. It says mercury is still used in skin lighteners and anti-aging skin products that are manufactured abroad and sold illegally in the United States.
If a mercury thermometer breaks, the EPA says to have everyone else leave the area without walking through the mercury, remove pets, open all windows and doors to the outside and shut doors to other parts of the house, and never to use a vacuum cleaner, because it will put mercury into the air and increase exposure.
Sources checked September 15, 2026. Every point below links the page it came from.
The sources behind this answer
- Government sourceThe EPA says the most common way people in the US are exposed to mercury is by eating fish containing methylmercury, and that other exposures may come from using or breaking products containing mercury. US EPA ↗
- Government sourceThe EPA says mercury is still used in skin lighteners and anti-aging skin products that are manufactured abroad and sold illegally in the United States. US EPA ↗
- Government sourceThe EPA says metallic mercury mainly causes health effects when inhaled as a vapor, with symptoms including tremors, emotional changes, insomnia, neuromuscular changes, headaches and poor performance on tests of mental function. US EPA ↗
- Government sourceThe EPA lists possible symptoms of methylmercury poisoning as loss of peripheral vision, pins and needles feelings, lack of coordination, impairment of speech, hearing and walking, and muscle weakness. US EPA ↗
- Government sourceFor a broken mercury thermometer, the EPA says to have everyone else leave the area, remove pets, open windows and doors to the outside and shut doors to other parts of the house. US EPA ↗
- Government sourceThe EPA says never to use a vacuum cleaner to clean up mercury, because the vacuum will put mercury into the air and increase exposure. US EPA ↗
Sources checked September 15, 2026. A brand statement is the company’s own claim, which we report but have not verified. Our grades are model-based estimates, not lab tests.