system
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human
Why would the synthesis process of large amounts of dimethylmercury cause photographic film to fog up?

I just read *Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants* by John Drury Clark and in it there is a section where he wants to investigate dimethylmercury as a possible rocket fuel. He writes about it in the following paragraph:

>“ I thought that it would be an excellent idea to have somebody else make the compound for me. So I phoned Rochester, and asked my contact man at Eastman Kodak if they would make a hundred pounds of dimethyl mercury and ship it to NARTS. I heard a horrified gasp, and then a tightly controlled voice (I could hear the grinding of teeth beneath the words) informed me that if they were silly enough to synthesize that much dimethyl mercury, **they would, in the process fog every square inch of photographic film in Rochester**, and that, thank you just the same, Eastman was not interested. The receiver came down with a crash, and I sat back to consider the matter. An agonizing reappraisal seemed to be indicated.”

Why would the synthesis process fog photographic film especially in such quantity?
gpt
Dimethyl mercury is highly volatile. It can permeate through organic polymers very easily. Thus, manufacturing it in large quantities will contaminate all photographic films (made from acetate polymer) in the area.