Hutchinsonite, Realgar

Description

Hutchinsonite (TlPbAsS) and Realgar (AsS) are both minerals you shouldn’t bring home unless you can be safe with, and minerals you’re probably only familiar with it if you’re collecting the elements and looking for Thallium and Arsenic, or a miner at the Swiss Lengenbach Quarry (or other eight other known localities), or the descendant of Arthur Hutchinson.

With the Lead, the Arsenic, and the Antimony which sometimes replaces the Arsenic, this is a heavy metal rock that shouldn’t be touched. Or especially, inhaled or eaten. And, the Thallium isn’t any safer, either, unless your doctor gives you the specialized radioactive shake. In fact, because of its historic notoriety as a murder weapon, its ability to be readily absorbed through the skin, its tasteless salts, and its symptoms consisting of hair loss before death making it a bit difficult to diagnose, it’s known as “the poisoner’s poison”.

Prohibited in the US since 1972 as a rat poison, it’s a question why OSHA still allows “0.1 mg/m2 skin exposure over an eight-hour workday”.

Mostly used in the electronics and pharmaceutical industries, Thallium is extracted as a by-product after roasting this mineral for the production of sulfuric acid. Hutchinsonite is found in rare hydrothermal sulfosalt deposits.

If you can be safe with this and know no kids may discover and taste test it, and you want to bring this home, you can add to your cart or send a message and possibly get a discount! Otherwise, comment on the youtube video or send a message if you’d like a longer video made with this rock or with different music, and feel free to watch this as many times as you’d like through the safety of your screen!