To clean up spilled mercury, use a flashlight to locate all droplets and push them together with a piece of stiff cardboard. Collect the larger beads with an eyedropper or plastic syringe and place them in a sealable container. For smaller beads, use sticky tape to pick them up. Sprinkle powdered sulfur or zinc powder on the area to bind with any remaining mercury, then wipe it with a damp paper towel. Seal all materials in a bag and contact a hazardous waste disposal service for proper handling.
DO NOT vacuum, sweep, or pour mercury down the drain, as this will worsen the contamination. If the spill is significant, call a professional.
You should also be wearing proper safety gear like gloves, goggles, and a mask before doing this. Also turn off HVAC and open the windows to prevent inhaling mercury vapor which is a fast track to neurological destruction and organ failure. The vapor invades your lungs, floods your bloodstream, and attacks your brain, causing tremors, hallucinations, and madness. Your lungs inflame, filling with fluid until you suffocate. Over time, your kidneys fail, your memory erodes, and your mind and body collapse. Prolonged exposure leads to irreversible damage and, eventually, death. It’s an invisible killer, poisoning you with every breath.
When I was about 12yo I saved the mercury from a thermometer that broke. I had it in a tiny little contact lense jar (they used to come in mini dram-sizes glass jars) and I loved shaking it to watch it split apart and go back together. Its also surprising heavy!
When I was about that age, I stuck a thermometer under the hot water because I wanted to fake having a fever so I wouldn't have to go to school that day. Well, the hot water melted the tip and the mercury spilled in the sink. I then spend the next 5 minutes trying to wash the mercury down the drain to cover up the evidence. I can still see the entire moment in my mind's eye. I'm sure I probably poisoned myself a bit. Sorry, mom.
I touched it as well, so I googled how fucked we are now:
As long as you don't expose your skin to the metal too much and you wash your hands after then you would be fine. If any mercury did absorb through your skin then the amount will be so small then you would urinate it out, leaving no mercury in your body and meaning it won't build up to harmful amounts.
When I was maybe 12 or 13 I dropped the thermometer on the floor and the Mercury came out of course. I don't know how long I sat on the floor rolling it around with my fingers but I was so fascinated by it. I had no idea it was poisonous. I even had it in the palm of my hand rolling it around. 🤦
It's mercury, it doesn't behave quite the same way water does.
The surface tension is much much higher, so it doesn't just spill and continue spreading until it hits a wall.
Instead it stays together in a puddle, or forms beads.
You can definitely pick the smaller beads up with a piece of paper or something like that.
Maybe with nails if yours are long enough.
I remember scooping it up with something. I don't remember what it was. A piece of paper or something like that. I don't remember what I used but I put it in my hand and rolled it around. I was so fascinated by it. It wasn't my brightest moment, but I also would have never touched it if I would have known it was dangerous. No wonder my memory sucks at 46.
It's the breathing it that is more of an issue. Hell, even drinking it would be less toxic if you have no wounds in your mouth or digestive tract (obviously don't try that though). Keeping it around in an open container or a sink P-trap (remember, mercury is heavy and will likely just sit there) will lead to hazardous exposure to mercury fumes.
Yeah, I drank a thermometers worth and was fine. My mom was told the same thing by poison control about how I should be fine with no sores, and she was surprised, to say the least
When I was a toddler I got my hands on one, my mom found me with it cracked open in my mouth and empty. I'd be more embarrassed about it if it was a memory I could even remember, I was too young
Yeah we've been told to FEAR the mercury but really the issues are prolonged exposures or taking a mercury bath. Touching it one time is not deadly or really THAT dangerous.
the pure elemental form of it isnt as dangerous as we made it. ofc its still plenty dangerous but you can technically touch it. the ionic forms such as mercury chloride is the really REALLY dangerous. dont even handle it or go near it
Same, I put it in a cup of hot tea and it broke. Shards of glass and mercury everywhere. I don’t remember how I cleaned it up, just that I was playing with it for a while. I was absolutely fascinated by being able to push drops around on the carpet. It behaved so different from any other liquid I’d ever come across. So stupid.
Did the same thing when I was a youngin, except I put it in my cup of hot tea my granny made me (for my “sore throat”) it broke and spilled inside the tea. Granny came out wondering why I wasn’t drinking my tea and where the damn thermometer went. Don’t remember how I got out of that one but never did that again lol
So it didn't go anywhere. That mercury just got stuck in the p-trap. If the kitchen hasn't been renovated, there's a good chance the mercury is still just sitting in the bottom of the trap under the sink.
Dude, this is just what happened as I remember it. I don't know what to tell you. You are not the first to go bananas about my thermometer story. This happened 40+ years ago. I guess they made shitty thermometers in the 70s. I don't know.
Nah man, he's got a point. What thermometer would ever melt under tap water? Typically mercury is housed in glass. Did your sink really produce water hot enough to melt glass? Or was it a plastic mercury thermometer?
Also way to come out the gate with an insult. The guy wasn't even being rude, just mentioning something that didn't make sense to him.
I appreciate that. Yeah, the anal birth omnipotent thing was odd. Even if the thermometer was plastic, water heaters don't get water hot enough to melt that either. Some water heaters actually have a plastic liner so the story doesn't add up.
My dad did some gold panning back in the 70s, and he'd met an old miner up in the hills who gave him some liquid mercury (I believe it's used to help separate gold from other minerals). It was in an old glass Gerber baby food jar, and there was a quite a bit of it (like 1/3rd of the jar). It was a lot of fun to slosh it around and watch the weird ways it moved. I had been snooping around in my dad's old hiking gear in the garage when I found it, and of course, once my dad found out, the jar of mercury disappeared. Just like the Playboys in his nightstand drawer 😢
My chemistry teacher used to have a huge mason jar full of mercury (early 1990s and he was definitely an old-school 1960s/70s era teacher). It was CRAZY how heavy it was and I'm glad no one every dropped it. I don't think this would be allowed now.
Yep you are correct and it's a big big fine if your busted. Especially if you have a copper gold pan I find it ironic that they were using a gold pan in this video. I worked for Gold Divers underwater mining equipment for a few years. If you've ever seen the movie "The Deep" we made that dredge :) And the owner would separate placer using Mercury. But not in the field!
Mercury has a specific gravity of 13.6, which means it's 13.6 more dense than water. 4 gallons of mercury weighs the same as a 55 gallon drum full of water.
I remember visiting my brother in the hospital when I was a kid. There was a wall mounted blood pressure meter with a small levee on it. When you pushed the lever, the glass vial lifted and the mercury came spilling out of the bottom. I spent some time with it in the palm of my hand, poking and prodding at the cool liquid metal.
Technically your body won't do much of anything with ingested elemental mercury. It's unlikely to do much unless you have an open wound and it can get into your bloodstream. Of course, breaking a thermometer in your mouth can definitely cause wounds...
Yea, I was just messing around, and when it broke my mouth froze. So I know there were no cuts, but I sooort of remember a quick swallow before I put my head forward and let the glass pieces fall out onto the bed. and there were also beads of Mercury or gallium pooling on the bed. Still alive.
As a kid I broke a thermometer and kept playing with the mercury balls, pushing them along the grout lines between floor tiles. The adults kind of freaked out when they found me and I was angry that they took my toy.
It's wild when you look into history and when we figure out "Oh shit this is actually really bad for you". Lead comes to mind, we put that shit in everything. Not to mention certain colors back not all that long ago being radioactive (though not exceedingly so). Fiestaware! I have a few pieces myself that I keep in a display case with some uranium glass.
I broke one too, but I played with it alone lmao. I remember being fascinated by it as it rolls on the floor like a metal jelly, not sure how dangerous 3 drops of mercury is but I don't remember how we disposed of them.
I agree with using caution, but liquid elemental mercury is pretty safe and is only considered mildly toxic. Even ingesting it will usually only cause minor gastro distress, diarrhea and such. You need to be really careful if it is mercury vapor, or if the mercury has become methylated. It only becomes Methylmercury after long exposure to bacteria found in plants, soil, fish etc. Once it's methylated it's extremely toxic because it is bioavailable and will be absorbed and circulated in your body.
So… true story! I was in a Fluid Mechanics Lab at university in 2013 or so when I was bleeding a mercury manometer during a head loss study when the dumb ass professor said, “You know how you can do that quicker?” He then plugged the end of the pipe we were studying so the only path for all water/mercury/air to leave was out of the bleed valve i was currently holding!
I was absolutely covered in Mercury!!! Weird feeling. Kinda neat that nothing absorbed it, clothes or my hair. The stupid school had no ‘emergency protocol’ to follow for situations like this, or at least the professor didn’t know it, so I walked all the way back to my dorm-room and showered it all off!
Im very certain now that that was not the right thing to do, but i simply thought “I need to get this off of me.” Weird experience, having mercury accumulate at the corner of your eyes when you blink hard and to feel it roll down your face like a heavy tear… I can vividly remember hearing the sound the tiny droplets made hitting the tile floor as i tussled my hair and thousands of tiny drops of mercury hit the tile! All that Mercury went into the Detroit watershed :/
My seventh grade science teacher had a homemade barometer with a capillary tube and a beaker with A LOT of mercury in it. We’d get it out and push it around on the desk. He used to tell us not to mess with it or we’d get the heebie-jeebies. He had a funny tick/growl in his voice when he spoke. I’m unclear as to whether it was the heebie-jeebies or Tourette’s.
I think what he might have been referring to as the heebie-jeebies is possibly Mad Hatter's Disease. It was a common ailment among habidashers in the 18th and 19th centuries when top hats were in fashion. They would use mercury salts to stiffen the fur used to make the hats, and this exposure in turn caused all sorts of health problems which could include a form of psychosis. The Mad Hatter character from Alice in Wonderland was inspired by this.
Maybe it’s regional differences but I learned in 8th grade that getting the heebie-jeebies is when you poke a hole in a white sheet and put it over your girlfriend and then she gives you a sloppy blowjob. You know, like a ghost. He-bj-bees.
It’s possible this is what the teacher meant, but I think we need more context to be sure.
In school I believe we had a special vacuum? I don’t really remember that well, it was middle school so I was on a lot of drugs at the time. I do recall (or think I recall, it could be a false implanted memory), that the liquid isn’t that dangerous, but if it spills it will later vaporize and breathing that is bad.
In college, the science lab next door to ours had a mercury spill (never knew the extent or volume), and they shut down the whole building for the rest of the week and had a hazmat crew in to clean it up. Just, like… in the middle of class we were told to grab our stuff and leave out the back of the building. Had to leave all our lab work behind.
Amazing that it all happened when we were all 13. I had a cup of mercury and played with it like a child's toy. It did ruin a few of my mum's gold jewelry but I'm still alive as well.
Fun fact, the "Madhatter" character comes from a phrase "mad as a hatter". Hat makers or hatters used mercury to felt the hats and would go insane from mercury poisoning.
Reminds me of when I worked at UPS and a box busted open, it was an improperly shipped container of Mercury. No hazmat certs, no paperwork, anything. The sort folks were playing with it on the belt for an hour or so before it got reported. I often wonder if those idiots had any long term health issues from that.
Highly unlikely. It's really bad if you spill some in your living space and it rolls somewhere and slowly evaporates so you get prolonged exposure to toxic fumes.
If you play with it for an hour on open air it's not a big deal.
Lead, petrol, IPA, resins are just as or even more toxic.
Most plastics when heated emit toxic fumes.
Aluminum is toxic and leads to nervous system degradation but aluminum foil and kitchenware are pretty common.
We drink water from plastic bottles, so we consume small plastic particles that inflict inflammation.
I remember my science teacher who grew up in the 50’s recalled as a child that his family doctor (who made house calls back then) let him play with a bowl of mercury while getting an exam. It served as an entertaining distraction for kids. The doctor did this to all his little patients.
If it’s anything more than a small thermometer you need to use an experienced contractor to clean it up. Mercury will sink into carpet and any cracks in flooring. No point in wearing a regular mask. Mercury can only be filtered with mercury specific cartridges
I read the first sentence was disappointed to discover you were giving a serious, informative, and helpful answer and not a description on how to re-create the T-1000 after being frozen in liquid nitrogen.
This makes me so uneasy because i remember when i was a teenager, i would break those ”glass” mouth thermometers and play with the mercury that came out of it. And not just once.
My parents didnt really seem bothered about it. They would always let me break stuff to see what was inside.
Collect the larger beads with an eyedropper or plastic syringe and place them in a sealable container. For smaller beads, use sticky tape to pick them up. Sprinkle powdered sulfur or zinc powder on the area to bind with any remaining mercury, then wipe it with a damp paper towel. Seal all materials in a bag and contact a hazardous waste disposal service for proper handling.
These don't seem like something a lot of regular households would have.
Also, hazardous waste disposal service? I can believe they may exist for industrial level customers, but local waste disposal companies, at least where I live, are barely getting around this whole recycling malarkey. I'd be safer snorting that mercury than letting them into my apartment to deal with it.
When I was 6 I broke our thermometer. I knew that stuff was bad so I didn’t touch it. Instead I took a dustpan and brush and sweeped it all together on our tiles (yay no carpet). I cannot remember what happened afterwards but 32 years later I‘m still alive yay!
When I worked for photographic company in the silver halide era, mercury spills ranked like bood-borne pathogens. Early training emphasized the difficulty to clean mercury spills.
„leading to madness“, that alone makes everything you said untrustworthy.
It‘s important to note that elementary mercury found in things like thermostats cannot be absorbed by the skin and isn‘t the deadly toxin you make it seem to be.
I’m talking about mercury vapors specifically. And although “madness” isn’t a medical term. Erethism is.
Which is also known as mad hatter’s disease or mad hatter syndrome. It’s a result of chronic mercury poisoning that can cause behavioral changes, including:
irritability, low self-confidence, depression, apathy, shyness, delirium, personality changes, and memory loss.
When I was in school, we were told to use rye bread for small amounts, since it should soak it up. Seemed to work ok when I was 10 and broke a mercury thermometer but there's probably better ways that people already mentioned.
At work I have a spill kit for thermometers. It's a coated sponge. You get it wet and it absorbs the mercury. You then use the wipes to finish cleaning. Everything including gloves goes into a spill bag. And then the bag goes in the hazmat waste bucket. When bucket gets to 80 percent full I pay a company a couple of thousand dollars to take it all away.
At one of my old jobs, we had an old school mercury thermometer. Someone broke it, my guess was on purpose to play with it. He had his fun but then probably realized he needed to figure something out. Because how do you explain this 1 special thermometer disappearing? Maybe he couldn't clean it up? That was when I also found out we had this little syringe vacuum thing to clean to clean up mercury spills that maintenance just so happened to have.
Wish I would've broken it. Mercury looks cool to play with, with gloves of course.
It mixes with metals of you have any aluminum foil laying around. For a huge spill you can just pour it into something since it doesn't make things wet the same way water does
Don't do this, not only will you ruin the vaccum cleaner. If you leave it there it will evaporate and next time you turn it on you might blow out the vapor.
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u/Bobobarbarian Dec 15 '24
So how would one clean up spilled mercury?