Precautions to take while cleaning up mercury?

Question

My wife was shaking one of those old school mercury thermometers and accidentily hit the bulb against her purse and it shattered and mercury went everywhere. What is the best way to clean it up and how cautious should we be while doing so?

Answer 1

don't panic.mercury isn't that dangerous but carefully you should be wash your hands well after collecting it . You gotta treat with it as if it is aliquid so don't try to catch it as you will fail to catch it. with any deep thing you can collect it SOFTLY.

Answer 2

u really should ring and talk to the poison centre staff,
be extremely careful, this is bad stuff, look up mercury on the net and dont ever keep stuf like that again
keep everyone away, wear gloves and glasses and a mask
low grade mercury poisoning may cause multiple symptoms (so a person is not a hypochondriac) as well as a change of personality
to be on the safe side id eat yams and sweet potato for a month, as if any has creeped in skin / nose the yam and sweet potato will bind to it and take it out of the body
say a little prayer

Answer 3

Depends on how much of the "mercury is going to kill you" hype you believe.

Technically (let's pretend this happened in a chemistry lab or something) you'd use a special vacuum to suck up the visible stuff and then you'd have to sprinkle powdered sulfur on the ground near the spill, it binds to the mercury and gets any itty bitty pieces your naked eye can't see. Then you sweep it up with a dust pan and broom and then throw those away never in a hazardous waste container and never use the dustpan/broom again.

However, since I'm going to vote you don't have any sulfur OR a hazardous waste container... If you use a dustpan/broom and do a really really good sweep of the area and then toss all of it (get a new broom etc..) I think you'll be ok considering the itty bitty amount that is in a normal oral/rectual mercury thermometer.

Answer 4

you should be very careful!
do not handle the mercury with your hands! Use protective gloves when disposing it. (You can get mercury poisoning just by the absorption of your skin!)
Depending on the type of mercury, it can be very toxic!!!!
Organo-mercury compounds attack the nervous system causing tremors, impaired vision and hearing, and paralysis. These compounds may also cause birth defects. The effects from exposure to excessive levels of airborne mercury or skin contact with mercury compounds may not be noticeable for months or years.
Since it is just a thermometer, there is probably not that much mercury present, so its not as severe or life threatening, but just be careful when handling it and use gloves--dispose correctly.

take care!!

Answer 5

Be very careful!!! Mercury is very toxic, you might want to call poison control for advice.