In the 21st century, many continue to use mercury thermometers. This is not surprising, because they are mistaken less often than electronic ones. However, such devices have a significant minus - they are filled with toxic contents. If the mercury thermometer breaks, it can harm the health of all households. How to prevent negative consequences? How to collect mercury balls yourself? Read about it in our article.
The thermometer crashed - the first actions
Smashed a thermometer? Do not panic! You can collect mercury balls yourself, without causing harm to health. BUT REMEMBER! If a thermometer with mercury crashes in the house, you are dealing with a toxic substance of the first hazard class.
The fact that mercury is an extremely dangerous substance is known to many, therefore it is not surprising that, having broken a thermometer in the house, a person panics and expects instant poisoning. It is not easy to collect mercury from a crashed thermometer. This is especially difficult to do in a hurry, with trembling hands in fear.
Some go to the other extreme, and are too careless about what happened: mercury carelessly sweeps a broom into the bin, while many tiny balls safely remain in the living room and poison the air for a long time with poisonous fumes.
The most important thing is to keep calm. Mercury is poisonous, and its vapor can cause serious poisoning. To minimize harm, you need to pull yourself together and begin to act, based on the recommendations of specialists.
Is mercury from a broken thermometer dangerous?
Take all people out of the room
First, you need to withdraw from the apartment in which the thermometer crashed, all the residents. Pregnant women, children, and the elderly are especially susceptible to the toxic effects of mercury. Pets are also better taken out of the room so that they themselves do not poison and do not transfer microparticles of mercury on their feet to other places.
The danger is not the mercury balls themselves, but their evaporation. The melting point of mercury is low 38.83 ° C. Therefore, in the room where the thermometer crashed, it is necessary to reduce the temperature to a minimum if possible. If it’s cool outside, immediately open the windows. If it’s hot, turn on the air conditioner.Just do not let the draft - because of it, mercury balls can fly around the room and break into smaller ones.
Preparing for the collection of mercury
Have you decided to take on the collection of mercury? Then you should take care of your own safety:
- put shoe covers or plastic bags on your feet;
- change into synthetics (unlike natural materials, its fibers absorb less toxic fumes);
- Protect your face with a mask, preferably with a wet layer of gauze (if there is no mask, use a towel or diaper);
- put rubber gloves on your hands.
All clothing after cleaning will have to be thrown away. Therefore, choose things with which you will not be sorry to say goodbye.
To collect balls of mercury from a crashed thermometer, you will also need:
- a pair of sheets of A4 paper and an envelope;
- soft brush or cotton pad;
- a glass container with a sealed lid filled with potassium permanganate solution or plain water;
- rubber bulb or syringe;
- wet newspaper;
- rag;
- potassium permanganate solution;
- adhesive tape or adhesive tape.
Close the doors tightly in other rooms of the apartment - this will help minimize the penetration of mercury vapor into other rooms. A wet rag should be placed under the door in the infected room.. So you hold back the spread of toxic substances.
You can also call 01. The rescue service is unlikely to come because of a broken thermometer, but experts will give recommendations on what to do in this situation.
For Moscow and Moscow Region:
CURRENCY Crashed? Urgently contact the Mercury Liquidation Service!
+7 (499) 110-22-12 - HOT HELP LINE - 24 hours (MOSCOW + MO)
Experts will tell you how to act correctly and how not to poison yourself!
Our certified specialists using only special equipment will measure the concentration of mercury vapor in the air and determine the sources. All detected mercury is quickly eliminated during special demercurization measures.
We give guarantees for all work:
Free re-departure and measurement of mercury vapor for 7 days!Accredited Laboratory - State. license
Certificate No. RA RU 21EN01
Mercury Collection Instructions
Mercury balls are collected as follows: they are rolled onto a sheet of paper or into an envelope with another sheet, a soft brush or a cotton pad soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate. Small droplets of mercury can be removed with duct tape or a rubber bulb.
Carefully inspect all surfaces and crevices in the room. To do this, it is better to highlight them by placing the lamp at an angle to the floor. If mercury drops get into slots, remove them with a pear or syringe. If there is traces of mercury under the baseboard, dismantle it and remove the silver balls.
If the thermometer crashes and mercury gets on the carpet, clothes, soft toys, upholstered furniture, it is almost impossible to clean mercury yourself. It’s better to say goodbye to these things - send them for recycling or burn them out of town. Can't refuse them? Try to leave infected things for 2-3 months on the street - for example, in the country. Sunlight will help mercury evaporate and weaken.
It is strictly forbidden to use a vacuum cleaner and a broom to collect mercury. A stream of air from a vacuum cleaner will only carry toxic particles around the apartment. Hard broom bristles will grind mercury balls. Dangerous microparticles will remain in the room and will continue to poison your household even after eliminating the consequences of the “accident” (this is like a time bomb).
If the mercury collection process has been delayed, go out for breathing clean air every 15 minutes. In cases where the temperature in the room cannot be reduced (it is a hot summer outside the window), you should not be in the infected room for more than 15 minutes continuously. In this case, of course, every time leaving the infected room, it is necessary to remove shoe covers.
Video instruction: What to do if a thermometer crashes
After watching this video, you will learn: what to do if a thermometer crashes? How to collect mercury? How not to be poisoned by mercury vapor? Where to call if a thermometer crashes? All questions will be answered by the expert of the independent environmental laboratory TESTECO - Alexander Kuksa:
How to finally clean the room?
When all balls and droplets of mercury are eliminated, it is necessary to do surface treatment in the room. Prepare a disinfecting solution. Manganese (20 g of potassium permanganate per 10 liters of water) or soap-soda (40 g of soap and 50 g of soda per 1 liter of water) is suitable. If there are no such ingredients in the house, use White.
With a washcloth or brush moistened with a disinfectant solution, thoroughly wipe all surfaces in the room, and treat the cracks with a spray bottle.
After surface treatment, leave the windows open for a few more hours. Let the room ventilate well. All this time, doors to other rooms must be closed.
How to dispose of mercury?
Place mercury, a broken thermometer with all the fragments, sheets of paper and adhesive tape in a jar of manganese solution and close the lid. Put everything on you (clothes, shoe covers, mask) into a bag, tie it. All these things must not be thrown into the trash or sewer. They must be properly disposed of.
A broken thermometer with all mercury balls is recommended to be returned to the mercury collection and disposal service. Judging by the reviews, they do not always agree to accept waste, but you need to try to insist on your own. Throwing a broken thermometer with ordinary rubbish is extremely undesirable. It contains about 2 g of a toxic substance of hazard class 1. You can also contact a paid recycling center. True, such organizations do not function in all cities.
Items that come in contact with mercury can be sent to landfills. They should first be spoiled so that no one decides to pick them up.
What should not be done if a thermometer crashes in the room?
- When ventilating a room, you cannot create a draft, because the smallest balls of mercury will scatter throughout the room and you will not be able to detect them.
- You can not use an ordinary broom. The coarse rods will break the balls of mercury and lift them into the air so that you cannot remove them.
- Using a vacuum cleaner will actually disperse the mercury throughout the room. In addition, there will be a big problem with the disinfection of this very useful household appliance, so you will most likely have to give it up.
- You should not wash items contaminated with mercury, as this will increase the infection of the apartment with this substance (washing machine and sewage system will suffer).
- Do not dispose of collected mercury in a sewer, garbage chute or landfill.
Individual Prevention
After a complete disinfection of the room, you need to take care of yourself. Having disposed of your clothes, go to the shower, change into clean clothes, brush your teeth, and rinse your mouth and throat with a weak solution of soda or potassium permanganate.
Since most of the toxic substances are excreted through the kidneys, drink more fluids - tea, milk, juices.
In what cases do you need to call specialists?
If the thermometer crashes in a small or unventilated room, it is not recommended to collect mercury yourself. This can cause severe poisoning. Mercury collection service must be called.
The boiling point of mercury is about forty degrees Celsius, therefore, in cases where drops of mercury hit a hot surface (for example, a heating radiator), evaporation will occur almost instantly.
If you have a suspicion that you did not collect all the balls of mercury, you need to call the sanitary and epidemiological station and arrange for disinfection. Another option is to conduct an independent environmental review of the apartment. Specialists will measure the level of mercury in the apartment, as well as take a thermometer with them for disposal.
The expert also emphasizes: «If you are not sure that you have collected all the balls of mercury, then you should call a specialist who will disinfect the room, on the Moscow Epidemiology and Hygiene Center website you can find the number of the nearest sanitary and epidemiological station or contact any independent environmental expert examination to examine your house. Specialists will measure the level of mercury, as well as conduct professional demercurization of the mercury thermometer. Then they will carry out a control measurement of the level of mercury and take away from you a jar of collected mercury and infected things - they will all utilize it.
Under any conditions, you can’t independently clean mercury from a crashed thermometer to people at high risk. This category includes:
- pregnant (mercury easily penetrates the placental barrier, and can disrupt the development of the child);
- persons under the age of 18 and after 65 years of age (the threshold of sensitivity of the body to mercury vapor has been increased);
- patients with acute and chronic diseases of the urinary and central nervous system.
Memo (clickable):
What if you do get poisoned?
Experts remind that mercury can cause intoxication of the body. Therefore, after contact with this substance, you need to pay attention to symptoms such as:
- headache;
- general weakness;
- irritability;
- tremor;
- discoloration of urine;
- nausea;
- weight loss;
- metallic taste in the mouth.
Signs of mercury vapor poisoning appear within 8 hours. At risk are women and children. If mercury intoxication is suspected, you should immediately go to the hospital and get tested.
Although many are used to using mercury thermometers, they contain a potentially hazardous substance. Therefore, in 2014, Russia acceded to the international Minamata Convention. In 2020, its participants will ban the production of thermometers and other devices with mercury, as well as their use in institutions.
How to handle a thermometer
Observe the rules for storage and use of a mercury thermometer. It is important to keep it in a special plastic case, shake it to bring down the temperature away from any objects that can be broken about. The thermometer should be out of the reach of children. Only an adult can measure the temperature of the baby, so that by chance the child does not break the thermometer.
In order to protect yourself from unnecessary worries about a possible infection, you can use an electronic thermometer instead of a mercury. By this criterion, it is much safer, but the measurement accuracy will be slightly different.
Video instruction number 2: if a thermometer crashed, how to properly collect mercury
Video instruction number 3: what to do if you broke a mercury thermometer at home. Parent Tips
Tells I.L. Artamonova, Nurse, Children's Health Research Center:
It was such a misfortune a couple of times in my house ... I remember that at first I felt a panic, and then “pulled myself together” and began to act. Unfortunately, I didn’t possess the above written information at that time, and in our small town there were never such items for the collection and disposal of mercury. Therefore, she did as she could and could. Carefully collected balls of mercury - with one notebook sheet drove them onto another sheet. I wrapped it all up, tied it up in a plastic bag and threw it into a trash can on the street.
About 50 years ago and now I’m 81 years old, in my pantry I accidentally crashed not the usual mercury thermometer but the technical one that I used in the incubator, its unusual feature was that it was several times more than usual medical ones by burning about 5-7 times over an irreparable loss I collected in a saucer large drops of mercury that fell through any borough on the floor about small droplets I didn’t bother with because I collected plenty of mercury in which way I collected it I don’t remember anymore and since I was engaged in all kinds of inventions designing and so on, I thought that where it will fit and put this saucer with mercury on the shelf in the garage that stood there for more than one year since I forgot about it although I was in the garage every day and it happened for a long time, especially in the summer, and I constantly went into the pantry that it’s so dangerous mercury or its vapors I didn’t imagine, but since there was a glass factory from our city within 20 km where mercury thermometers were made, it’s no secret that everything It was clear that this was a harmful production, and I thought that if people work there, it’s not so dangerous and I buried a saucer in the ground about a dozen years after the incident and of course I didn’t use any protective equipment that came in contact with mercury I did not throw out with regard to the consequences associated with the above, I suspect an early partial loss of memory and now complete, maybe I'm wrong, memory loss is a natural phenomenon of old age
About 50 years ago, and now I’m 81 years old in the pantry, I had a technical mercury thermometer that was several times larger than the usual medical thermometer, I collected most of the mercury in a saucer and put it on a shelf in the garage where it stood for more than a year. I don’t remember the mercury I know that I didn’t use any means of protection, nor did I throw out any items that came in contact with mercury after a couple of decades, I felt a partial loss of memory and now I suspect a pretty deep impact of mercury or its vapor, maybe this is not the case old age