Is it true that you could possibly die if you touch mercury?

If you touch it you won’t die unless you digest it in some way I think. It is very harmful so as soon as you touch is you need to wash your hands fast, but you can touch it, its not like your going to die instantly just by touching it.

Very little elemental mercury is absorbed through intact skin. 80% of inhaled mercury vapor is absorbed so it is a much greater concern; the biggest concern for working around elemental mercury is good ventilation so you won’t breath it. Since fluorescent bulbs contain mercury when they are broken you should open windows and leave the area until it can air out before cleaning it up. I used to own one pound of elemental mercury that I was given by a retired high school chemistry teacher. He knew I was into electronics and thought I might want to use it to make switches, relays, etc. After years of not doing anything with it I decided it was too much toxic metal to have laying around the house and donated it to my college chemistry department. As a boy I collected small amounts of mercury from broken thermometers and from old plumb bobs. If momentary contact with elemental mercury was lethal I never would have survived to adulthood.

There are mercury compounds that are far more dangerous than elemental mercury. Dimethylmercury is so toxic that any skin contact would almost certainly be fatal.