Broken thermometer mercury

[NOMAD]

The previous owner appaently broke a thermometer on the workbench i'm taking apart. A bit of mercury spilled onto the floor when I unscrewed a board.
Any tips or special insight on how to ensure getting all the mercury up? It's a small amount but I know it's not good.

I swept up all I could see, no idea if there are any other tiny pellets of it around.

 

[Coach James]

In the lab, when we have a spill, we use wet cotton balls and rubber gloves to clean it up. We run damp cotton over the area to get up amounts that we can't see.

Coach

 

[Junkman]

When I was a kid, we would play with it for days on end. It isn't as bad as some would have you believe, unless you were to ingest it. Clean up as much as you can with sweeping, and don't worry about what is left. This reminds me of a story where a lady broke a compact fluorescent bulb, and called the State Department of Environmental Protection. The clean up bill was about $2000. In the end, it turned out that this was just an urban myth, but I do know of school labs that were shut down and the school system spent a lot to have a hazardous waste team come in to do the clean up. Here is a site that will give you more information....... Just don't tell the kids or the neighbors.....

 

[bmwpower]

When I was a kid, we would play with it for days on end.

That explains a lot!

Thanks for the setup!

 

[DynoDave]

This sounds a little weird, but we used to scoop it up with nickels (the coins). It won't stick to it, and you can roll/scoop that little ball of mercury (assuming it stayed in a ball shape?) up onto a piece of paper, then dispose of it.

 

[Junkman]

That explains a lot!

Thanks for the setup!

And what is your excuse????? Too many Bowel Movement Whiffs??????

Thanks for the setup!

 

[Vicegrip]

OMG I'm gonna die! I had a pint container 3/4 full of the stuff I scrounged up from some blood pressure machines that were being chucked out. This was late 60s and on a air force base. It will devolve lead and stick to silver too. Had it around for years.

The amounts that we had and spilled would cause an EPA national alert now a days.

 

[thefairlaneman]

I use to play with the stuff in jr science club. Injestion is the main hazard. I would sprinkle some corn starch over the area and then vacum it up with a shop vac,,,,,bing bang problem solved!

 

[trovato]

I use to play with the stuff in jr science club. Injestion is the main hazard. I would sprinkle some corn starch over the area and then vacum it up with a shop vac,,,,,bing bang problem solved!

Here's an "official" answer:

http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/survweb/merchome.pdf

One thing you're NOT supposed to do is use a vacuum.

 

[NOMAD]

Wow, cool info. Thanks.
I did carefully use a broom, guess I wasn't supposed to do that. I'll wipe down the are with damp paper towels.

Should be fine.

 

[ju539]

My dad worked in a boiler factory where they had an electric resistance welder to weld cast iron arches inside the smaller boilers to swirl the fire around the shell. Anyway, for years the switch for this was an open pot of mercury that would splutter and spit every time it closed. He designed and built a switching device that used a series of contactors. This saved the company $500.00 yearly in the mercury that was waisted and is still there in the floor someplace. I think the EPA would shut the place down and declare it an environmental hazard zone if they knew!!!

 

[Jay H 237]

It's amazes me how a drop spills in a school today and the whole building is shut down and decontaminated over a few days. I remember being in 7th or 8th grade and a thermometer got broken in science class. The teacher had us gather up the blobs on paper towels and wash them down a sink drain. I remember the teacher also saying that a similar thing happened in another classroom a year before and the custodian just mopped the floor up when they found out about it. There were no procedures in place back then when things like this happened and it didn't become a big deal.


I know that most of the schools have gotten rid of mercury thermometers these days around by me.

 

[thefairlaneman]

Here's an "official" answer:

http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/survweb/merchome.pdf

One thing you're NOT supposed to do is use a vacuum.

Yo I didnt mean your mamas hover vac. Im talking about a heavy duty wet and dry shop vac with and enclosed canister . In my shop vac I have oil in the bottom to absorb dust. I guess thats to complicated so maybe he better go ahead and call the HAZ MAT TEAM and not take a chance of geting a drop or two on him,,,,,,,gezzzz.you too........lol

 

[trovato]

Yo I didnt mean your mamas hover vac. Im talking about a heavy duty wet and dry shop vac with and enclosed canister . In my shop vac I have oil in the bottom to absorb dust. I guess thats to complicated so maybe he better go ahead and call the HAZ MAT TEAM and not take a chance of geting a drop or two on him,,,,,,,gezzzz.you too........lol

Whenever someone posts a question about something safety/health oriented, you can pretty much predict some of the responses. There will always be a couple of stories about how in the good old days, we just dumped it, drank it, smoked it or whatever. These can be entertaining, especially if the writer does not recommend that we do those things today. Then there are those who just want to deny what science has learned in the last 50 years or so. The world is full of dangerous stuff. If you wake up the next day and feel fine, that doesn't mean that whatever you did was healthy or safe. Some exposures are cumulative, and others may only show their effects years down the road. Now, sure, there are reguations that get a little excessive at times. But the guidelines I referenced seem to be practical and well thought out. The warning about vacuums seems reasonable, and they explain the danger of getting the stuff in the air. A big honkin vacuum will only do a better job of putting the mercury into the air, unless you vent it outdoors or your magic oil somehow absorbs it all. They didn't say to call the hazmat team. they said to clean it up carefully and slowly with some common household items. You can take this advice, or just declare this to all be BS and vacuum it up while smoking your Lucky Strikes and drinking a beer out of a lead cup.

 

[bassman]

I just hope your not serious.