mercury- broken thermometer

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Forum -> Children's Health

Mercury- broken thermometer

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amother

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 3:07 am

Does anyone have experience with a broken mercury thermometer? I know now that I don't need one and there are other options and I do not plan on replacing the broken one. But...ours broke on Friday night.
We cleaned up most of the beads but over the day we found some teeny tiny ones every time the room was swept. Im so nervous. We spoke to poison control and some number they gave us about mercury clean up, and it did not make me feel better. My kids were playing in the room all day, the a/c was on all day (which they said was bad, we should have the windows open for 48 hours and try to avoid that room). And Im pregnant. I know what happened already happened and I can't change that, but I can't calm down.
Does anyone know just really how dangerous that tiny amount in a thermometer really is? And is it totally ridiculous to take my kids the pediatrician tomorrow as a precaution?

BeershevaBubby

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 3:36 am

Mercury is VERY dangerous, even in tiny amounts.

I recommend you get in touch with the local college chemistry professor and see if s/he can help you with proper clean-up. They can also tell you if you and the kids need to see a doctor.

mamommommy

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 8:01 am

Mercury IS very dangerous, but the real issue is the amount that is inhaled, or is absorbed by the body. Given that a mercury thermometer has such a small amount of mercury in the first place and that you probably cleaned up most of it and that of what remained after clean-up didn't all get inhaled or absorbed by your children, I'm sure that the amount that they were exposed to is probably negligible.

greenfire

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 1:16 pm

we used to play with mercury all the time ... we're all fine (perhaps that explains a lot of things) ... many years ago while my kids were still little and mercury wasn't considered as poisonous - a thermometer broke and while cleaning up the mercury it got stuck to my gold wedding band - totally coating it in mercury to look silver ... quite interesting

had to take it to a jeweler who dipped it in some chemical to adverse said chemical reaction ...

Marigold

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 1:21 pm

My thermometer also broke one shabbos and the mercury got scattered all over. I cleaned it up well (over the course of shabbos and motzei) and my kids and I lived to tell the tale (b"h).

sequoia

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 1:21 pm

It's okay, don't worry about it. As long as no one touches it or steps on it with bare feet.

amother

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 2:08 pm

How do I know if we got it all up, we swept lots of times (I know, we shouldn't have done that, we threw out the broom) and we washed the floor after shabbos. But...its old Israeli tiles, stuff can easily get in the cracks between the tiles. And some of those beads were TINY. I know eventually they will just evaporate, but then we'll be breathing in mercury vapor until they all go away. Definitely most of it was cleaned up.
How can it affect a fetus?

bnm

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 2:32 pm

I thought they stopped using real mercury in the thermometers.

bluebird

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 2:58 pm

The EPA has instructions on what to do in this situation. You may find it helpful.

http://www.epa.gov/hg/spills/

canadamom

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 4:41 pm

whatever you do, just don't use a vacuem to clean it up. I did that and was told to throw out my vacuem!!! (which I didn't btw, because it was an expensive electrolux. so I just threw out the bag, and left it on my porch to air out for a while...)
good luck!

amother

Sun, Oct 17 2010, 5:08 pm

thanks

we didn't use a vacuum- it was shabbos. but we did use a broom, which is now in the garbage.
im just going to forget about it, or at least try. we did everything we could. we washed the whole floor more than once. the room was been airing out, empty all day, and will be for half of tomorrow as well.
after shabbos we did learn all about the right procedure for cleaning up, we did it partially right.

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