Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Does Nair contain Mercury?

Nair Hair Remover Cream contains Potassium thioglycolate (article http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries... ). I've read articles that said anything with a "mer-" or "thio-" at the front of the name is derived from mercury. More to the point, the chemical potassium thioglycolate has a fact sheet here: http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household... which says it's also known as anything "mercapto-," such as Mercaptoacetic acid, and Potassium mercaptoacetate. So while I can't find anything specifically saying that these are all mercurials...wouldn't this make sense?



Does Nair contain Mercury?

No, NAIR does NOT contain mercury.



Organic chemicals with "thio" or "mercapto" in the name contains a thiol group -- HS -- , not Mercury.



Potassium thioglycolate (CAS Number: 34452-51-2) has the formula:



HSCH2COO-K



No Mercury (Hg) in there!



Does Nair contain Mercury?

The name mer- at the front of the name does not derive by mercury but by mercaptan.



Thiols are also referred to as mercaptans . They are compounds that contains the functional group - SH.



Does Nair contain Mercury?

No,



Mercapto- and thio- refers to the R-SH and the R-S-R' functional groups respectively. They have nothing to do with the heavy metal Hg.

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