A mercury thermometer, despite the development of technology, is quite often used to measure body temperature. It can be found in almost every home, although in general it is gradually being replaced by electric thermometers - safe and easy to use. But since exactly mercury thermometer is the cheapest option for temperature measuring devices, they continue to buy it. And a situation may occur that one day it will break. How to remove mercury from the floor? What to do in such a situation?
A mercury thermometer consists of glass, inside of which there is a small reservoir filled with mercury. There is an absolute vacuum inside the device; there is no air there. If such a thermometer is broken, then the danger to a greater extent is not the small glass that has fallen on the floor, but the mercury itself.
Mercury belongs to heavy metals, this substance is a beautiful silver color. It is fluid, which allows it to rise up the thermometer when heated. The substance belongs to hazard class I. Mercury is used in medicine, mechanics, metallurgy, for manufacturing fluorescent lamps. This metal has special properties. For example, already at an air temperature of only +18 degrees it begins to evaporate - toxic fumes enter the atmosphere. They are a strong poison, but do not emit any odor, which makes them even more dangerous.
On a note! If you break a thermometer, 2-4 g of mercury will be in the air. However, this negligible amount of substance can pollute about 6,000 m 3 of clean air.
Mercury is a fluid metal; when a thermometer is broken, it is divided into a mass of small balls, which can easily roll anywhere - into, under the baseboard, get stuck in the pile of the carpet or under furniture. Over a long period of time, mercury balls will evaporate, poisoning the air in the room, and they are so small that sometimes they cannot be found at all.
A person inhaling mercury vapor exposes his body to danger. Mercury begins to accumulate in his body, intoxication with this substance occurs, which can cause irreversible consequences and health problems. First of all, they suffer skin, nervous system, liver, kidneys, teeth. The amount of mercury in the thermometer is enough to poison 10 people. The danger also lies in the fact that poisoning with this substance is a long-term process, and the symptoms will not be noticeable immediately. About 80% of mercury enters the body through the respiratory system.
Table. Main symptoms of mercury poisoning.
Acute poisoning occurs no earlier than a few hours after the thermometer breaks, if no measures are taken. Chronic poisoning will only appear after several years. The degree of poisoning by this substance will depend on the amount of mercury in the house, the duration of exposure to its vapors, and the state of human health. Mercury is most dangerous for children and pregnant women.
In general, mercury thermometer not dangerous if handled with care. Under no circumstances should it be given to children to play with, and it is recommended to store it only in special cases. They will help protect the thermometer even after a fall. If the device breaks anyway, the mercury will not roll across the floor, but will remain inside the case.
If such a disaster occurs, then the first thing is to remove all people from the premises, especially children. This also applies to pets. Both they and children will not find mercury balls dangerous; they may start playing with them, which will only worsen the situation.
Then it is important to close the door to the room where the thermometer broke. It is recommended to open all windows in the apartment. And you will have to ventilate often and regularly, so that all the toxic fumes are certainly gone. However, it is important that there is no strong draft in the room, otherwise the mercury will spread throughout the floor.
On a note! If the thermometer fell in its case and broke, but the container remained closed, then the task of removing mercury from the room is greatly simplified.
Collection Tools
To clean a room from mercury, the person who will be doing it will need the correct equipment. You should put a gauze bandage on your face soaked in a soda solution (1 tablespoon of the substance is diluted in a glass of water). You can also use a dry dressing, but then its effectiveness will be lower.
Shoe covers are put on your feet or plastic bags, they can be fixed with tape. And they put it on your hands latex gloves.
The thermometer measures temperature quite accurately and has a very small error (no more than 0.1 degrees). Therefore, in many medical institutions Preference is still given to a conventional thermometer. In addition, using a thermometer, body temperature can be measured in several ways (in the armpit, rectally, orally), the surface of the thermometer is easily disinfected, and the device itself does not require mains power or battery replacement. With careful handling, mercury can last for decades, and its fairly low cost (only 20-25 rubles) makes it attractive to the buyer.
Along with undeniable advantages mercury thermometers also have several significant disadvantages, the main and most serious of which is their fragility. It is very easy to break a mercury thermometer, and this will inevitably lead to air poisoning with toxic mercury vapor.
Why is a broken thermometer dangerous?
If you break or break a thermometer, microscopic glass fragments and balls of mercury will instantly appear on the floor. And if glass can cause trouble in the form of cuts, then mercury vapor, being a strong poison, poses a more serious danger. Due to its properties, the mercury flowing out of the thermometer is broken into many tiny droplets, which roll into hard to reach places(under the sofa, closet, behind the baseboard, in the cracks of the flooring) and, evaporating, poison the air. If you do not remove all the mercury and the thermometer itself in time, you can get severe poisoning. Accumulating in the kidneys, liver, and lungs of a person, vapors of harmful metals cause chronic intoxication, which manifests itself as skin rashes, stomatitis, diarrhea, vomiting, and chills throughout the body. And prolonged exposure to mercury vapor can affect the human psyche and even cause madness.
Therefore, it is very important to quickly and efficiently collect the contents of the thermometer. To ensure that the premises are cleaned, specialists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations should be called, but you can carry out this procedure yourself, taking all the necessary precautions.
How to collect mercury
If it happens accidentally, don't panic. Before you begin to remove mercury balls, it is necessary to remove from the premises all people who will not participate in the cleaning, as well as animals. It is very important to open the windows in the house to ventilate the room and close the doors in adjoining rooms to let mercury vapor out broken thermometer did not spread. When collecting mercury, you must wear rubber gloves, it is better to put shoe covers on your feet, and cover your mouth and nose with a damp gauze bandage.
Under no circumstances should you collect mercury using a vacuum cleaner or broom. In the first case, once inside, toxic fumes will be blown out of the vacuum cleaner along with the air. In the second, the broom rods can break small balls into even smaller ones, which will complicate their collection.
Most reliable way collect mercury, thermometer - use an ordinary syringe. Such cleaning will take a lot of time and is quite painstaking, but the mercury balls are guaranteed to fall into the cavity of the rubber bulb and will not disintegrate into smaller parts.
Newspaper soaked in water will also help in removing mercury, as mercury balls will easily stick to it. If you have a thermometer and mercury has leaked out, you can use an adhesive plaster or tape, cotton balls moistened with water or vegetable oil, as well as two sheets of paper, with which, using the principle of a dustpan and a broom, using careful movements to collect the contents of a broken thermometer.
Another easy way collect mercury - use a medical syringe. After cleaning, it also needs to be sealed in a jar and sent for disposal along with the broken one.
If it happens that the thermometer breaks on the carpet, then the carpet should be taken out and knocked out in a place where there are no people. The concentration of a dangerous substance from one broken thermometer is not very high; within three days it will evaporate without harming people or the environment.
After the contents of the broken thermometer are safely collected and ready for disposal, you should treat the “accident” site with a solution of potassium permanganate (2 g per liter of water). But since this product cannot be used in all cases due to the stains it leaves, you can cover the entire area where mercury could get from a broken thermometer with bleach or any disinfectant containing it. For example, a glass of “whiteness” is taken onto a ten-liter bucket of water and the surface is treated with this solution to convert mercury into a non-evaporating compound. Then we wipe it with a soap solution again, finally removing the mercury from the outskirts to the center (100 g of soap powder and 100 g of soda per bucket of water).
Under no circumstances should collected mercury be thrown into a garbage chute or sewer system. Balls of collected mercury, a broken thermometer, as well as all its contents must be placed in a glass container filled with water, then tightly sealed with a lid and transferred to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. It should be remembered that a few grams of mercury contained in can poison up to 6000 m3 of air!
Mercury is a highly toxic metal that has a detrimental effect on the human body and the environment.
Modern people are trying to get rid of the use of items containing this substance.
But to this day, many still use a mercury thermometer. Therefore, the question of how to properly collect mercury is very relevant for many families.
There are many methods for collecting mercury from the floor. Most simple ways will be discussed below.
- If you have a syringe on hand, you can safely use it. IN in this case, its ability to absorb liquid, including mercury balls, will be useful. Moreover, the collected dangerous component is injected into a previously prepared glass container with water. When finished, be sure to close it hermetically.
- Mercury can be removed at home even with ordinary napkins or cotton wool, previously moistened with water or sunflower oil.
- Mercury from a broken thermometer will stick perfectly to tape or medical plaster. These things can be found in any person's home.
- Mercury balls, if desired, can be removed onto foil or paper using a brush.
- The contents of a broken thermometer can be removed from the floor surface using sponges or cotton balls pre-treated with potassium permanganate.
Remove mercury from carpet
How to collect mercury from a carpet? It is important not to panic; although the substance is toxic, if all precautions are taken, it does not pose a great danger.
To begin, roll the rug or rug from the edges to the center. This is done to prevent mercury balls from spreading across the floor. Then, it is recommended to put the coating in a dense and, of course, intact plastic bag. Moreover, your movements should be made from the periphery to the central part.
Take everything outside. At the same time, you need to know, if the thermometer is broken, how to collect dangerous mercury. In this case, it is not suitable to simply hang the carpet. It is recommended to first lay polyethylene under it.
This is done to prevent toxic balls from reaching the surface of the earth. From the opposite side of the cover, perform weak blows. All so that the toxic substance is released from the carpet onto the removed polyethylene.
Be reasonable! Don't destroy nature and don't harm people around you. Do not throw away a broken thermometer and its remains right in the yard. The balls are carefully collected in a container of water and only then handed over to the Ministry of Emergency Situations for disposal.
The carpet must be periodically taken outside for airing for another three months. Ideal option It will be possible to hang it for a month in the garage or in the yard of your private home. This way it will become completely safe faster.
Can mercury be removed with a magnet?
Before collecting toxic mercury with a magnet, you need to take precautions. In this case, be sure to protect your hands from the toxic substance. For this, it is recommended to use gloves made of especially dense rubber.
Since mercury is primarily a metal, a magnet can handle its balls the best way. After all, the interaction of these components is known even to a schoolchild. And there is no doubt that a magnet will not help.
It is important to do everything carefully and fold collected mercury into a special container with water. A magnet will not be able to collect everything at once. Although, this depends on its size and the amount of substance scattered on the floor.
And, in conclusion, I would like to note that gloves should be removed so that the magnet with mercury balls remains inside the glove.
What does mercury look like in the photo?
Photos of mercury balls can be found on the Internet. But there is nothing special in these photos. They look like small transparent balls that are toxic.
It is important that children see such photos. They need to know what the hazardous substance looks like and how to remove mercury. Moreover, on the pages of Internet portals you can find a lot step-by-step photo instructions, which can be used to collect mercury from the floor or carpet.
Important
- if the thermometer breaks, clear the room of people as quickly as possible;
- Ensure that the room is hermetically sealed before removing toxic metal and open windows for ventilation;
- during the cleaning process, be sure to use a respirator or a regular gauze bandage;
- as protection for your feet, you should prepare shoe covers or simply wear plastic bags;
- It is recommended to put all the contents of the thermometer and the fragments into a glass container, half filled with water, and seal it with a lid;
- instruments in contact with mercury and a broken thermometer, during the cleaning process, must be placed in another container, also sealed;
- mercury should be collected carefully, and it is recommended to leave every 15 minutes dangerous premises and go out into the fresh air (it is important to drink as much liquid as possible);
- For a whole month after you had to collect mercury from a broken thermometer in your apartment, you should ventilate the room more often than usual.
What not to do
- it is important to exclude drafts that can contribute to the spread of balls throughout the room;
- You should not use a vacuum cleaner when cleaning mercury, since the expensive equipment will then have to be disposed of;
- if you decide to remove mercury with a rag, you can rub the dangerous substance into the floor surface;
- Do not throw mercury down the drain or onto the street ( Is it dangerous!);
- Do not bury mercury in the ground or burn it (this will negatively affect the cleanliness of the environment);
- It is not recommended to sweep mercury balls with a broom, since its hard rods can allow them to break into smaller particles;
- Do not wash clothes that have come into contact with toxic substances washing machine;
- You should not turn on the air conditioner, as mercury particles may settle on the filter.
Disposal of a broken thermometer
It is recommended that you voluntarily give a container of mercury, the remains of a broken thermometer and the tools that you used during the cleaning process to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
And don’t be too surprised or upset if the employees of this service redirect you to the housing office or to the pharmacy. It is worth showing perseverance and perseverance in order to dispose of toxic substances correctly, without causing damage to nature and people.
Never dispose of the thermometer or any collected toxic metal in the trash or down the drain. This is not true. This will allow toxins to spread into the environment.
And after that, take a look at your nearest pharmacy kiosk and buy yourself a new, electronic, not mercury thermometer.
Room treatment
After collecting dangerous mercury in a room, you should ventilate it for three hours.
This is done so that the poison vapors disappear. But special treatment pieces of furniture that were nearby should also yield.
You can prepare a soap-soda composition from 50 g of soda, 50 g of soap and 1 liter of water room temperature. All metal and wooden surfaces They rub it on and remain so for two hours.
After which, the composition is washed off only with a soap solution, and then warm water. Such manipulations must be performed daily, for a whole week. It is important to constantly wash the floors in the room and ventilate it.
Chemical demercurization at home involves the use of whiteness. To start, you need 1 liter. Dissolve white in 5 liters. water. Moreover, the container must be plastic.
Metal vessels are contraindicated. The resulting composition, using a brush or sponge, is used to treat the contaminated surface. In this case, gloves must be very thick.
In this case, parquet and baseboard cracks deserve special attention. After 15 minutes, everything is carefully washed off with clean warm water.
Therefore, you should not open the windows completely if it is cold outside. This way you will not achieve the desired result. It is better to leave the window slightly open for a long time.
Important! The composition with which you initially wiped the surfaces is also considered saturated with mercury. Therefore, dangerous to your health. It must be handed over, along with mercury and cleaning tools, to a special institution, for example, to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Mercury vapor is classified as a first-degree poison. Even a small amount of them can cause irreparable harm to human health.
Therefore, if you break a thermometer, it is better to call specialists who know how to collect dangerous mercury correctly. Leave the room yourself and organize its ventilation.
A mercury collection service with special certification deserves trust. Only real professionals who have necessary equipment and equipment will be able to collect mercury and demercurize it.
Demercurization is the process of removing mercury and its compounds. In this case, chemical or mechanical method implementation of the task. In this case, people who do not participate in the destruction of mercury metal must definitely leave the premises.
The mercury complex must be included in State Register measuring instruments. And only after specialists have diagnosed the degree of contamination can we begin to decontaminate the room from mercury.
Only specialized services can guarantee complete removal of toxic contamination. Professionals carry out work solely according to the readings of the device, up to completely clearing the room of dangerous fumes.
After some time, a control measurement is carried out. At the same time, you will not pay anything extra. Everything is done completely free of charge, so that you can verify the quality of the decontamination carried out.
Precautionary measures
If it is not possible to call a specialized emergency services service to dispose of mercury, you will have to collect the balls yourself.
- First of all, open the windows in the room. Moreover, it is recommended to exclude drafts so that the substance does not spread throughout the room.
- People who are in the room and will not take part in cleaning must leave the room. They don't have to inhale toxic fumes.
- In this case, it is imperative to use personal protective equipment. A respirator or a standard gauze bandage acts as protection for the respiratory organs. Rubber gloves are put on your hands and shoe covers on your feet. The latter can be replaced with plastic bags.
- If toxic metal gets on the surface of a carpet or other objects that can absorb the substance, it is necessary to ventilate and knock it out for three months.
Mercury is an increased source of danger, so the problem should never be ignored. Otherwise, serious health problems may arise.
What to do if the thermometer breaks?
A thermometer is a very fragile item and can easily be broken. Quite often this situation arises, especially in families with small children. You need to know the dangers of mercury and how to protect yourself and your family members.
Mercury vapor can cause serious poisoning. They are very toxic and have a detrimental effect on the human immune system. Mercury is especially dangerous for pregnant women and children.
Even a temperature of 18 degrees will be enough for mercury to begin to release harmful fumes. In this case, toxins will be sent to the owners of the apartment where the thermometer crashed for several years.
If a mercury thermometer breaks, it is important to eliminate the consequences in a timely manner to avoid the harmful effects of toxins. In some cases, it is necessary to call a specialist and treat the premises.
What should you not do if the thermometer breaks?
Some people panicking only makes the situation worse.
There are a number of prohibitions that should not be done if a mercury thermometer breaks:
- Create a draft.
- Throw the remaining thermometer into the garbage disposal.
- If mercury gets on your clothing, do not wash it in the machine.
If you create a draft, there is a high probability of spreading toxins into other rooms. This will lead to more poisonings in people.
Throwing a thermometer into the garbage chute will not relieve the disastrous consequences. 2 grams of mercury are enough to poison 6,000 cubic meters of air. As a result, not only the culprit will be poisoned, but also those around him.
If you wash contaminated clothes in a washing machine, some of the substance will settle on the walls of the drum.
As a result, during subsequent washing it will settle on other things. It is recommended to throw away contaminated clothing, but not into the garbage disposal. Better yet, hand it over to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
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How to remove mercury?
To collect a broken thermometer and mercury, you must follow the rules. Moreover, each point is of great importance.
What to do first:
- provide access fresh air into the room for at least 1 hour, but without a draft;
- mercury is very easy to spread throughout the apartment, it sticks to the metal, it is necessary to limit the area where the thermometer crashed;
- all parts of the thermometer and mercury must be collected in a jar With cold water to prevent the substance from evaporating;
- a jar with the remains of a thermometer and mercury it is required to be well closed and removed from heat sources and handed over to the Ministry of Emergency Situations;
- treat the accident site with a solution of manganese or bleach.
Particular attention should be paid to preparing for the collection of mercury. Under no circumstances should this be neglected.
Before collecting the fragments and remains:
- Wear thick rubber gloves; do not allow mercury to come into contact with your skin;
- Put shoe covers or bags on your feet;
- Put on a bandage soaked in soda solution.
The above measures will help avoid the spread of poison throughout the room.
When the cleaning is completed, you need to throw the gloves, shoe covers, and bandage into a bag and tie it tightly. Ideally, give this along with the fragments to the Ministry of Emergency Situations for safe disposal.
Mercury must be collected carefully. If you treat this issue negligently, then serious health problems may arise in the future. Since the balls are of different diameters, it is quite difficult to collect them completely.
- syringe;
- patch;
- mini-enemas;
- tape;
- soaked cotton wool;
- plasticine.
Mercury must be collected from every crack. A syringe with a thick needle is good for this.
If mercury gets under floorboards, parquet, linoleum, or baseboards, it is important to remove and eliminate the substance!
If the elimination of the consequences takes a long time, then it is recommended to go out into the air every 15 minutes.
After eliminating the consequences, you should take a good look at everything with a flashlight. If balls are found, be sure to remove them and treat the surface. Over the course of a week, you should regularly wash the accident site. It is recommended to use cold water for this.
How can you not collect mercury?
Many people use a vacuum cleaner to remove mercury from the carpet. This is strictly prohibited.
The fact is that the vacuum cleaner blows warm air.
This is enough for the mercury to begin to evaporate. In most cases, the vacuum cleaner does not collect the substance, but contributes to its further spread.
Some of the mercury remains in the device, and as a result, evaporation will continue during subsequent use.
It is a mistake to hope that filters will save the situation and to believe that storing a vacuum cleaner on a balcony or in a closet will protect it. This is far from true. Vacuuming mercury is strictly prohibited.
If the device has already been used, it is recommended to damage it and throw it away. Damage it so other people don't pick it up.
You cannot remove mercury with a broom.
The rods are sharp enough and will easily crush large balls to dust. But this is only part of the problem. The balls may be so small that they cannot be seen. This means ignoring the problem.
In addition, the broom will spread mercury dust throughout the entire area. In this case, it is almost impossible to eliminate the consequences on your own. You'll have to call a special service.
You can't pick up mercury with a rag. This will only make the balls more crushed and crushed. In addition, the area of pollution will increase. Even a wet rag will not completely remove the hazardous substance.
Under no circumstances should you collect mercury with your hands. Contact with skin is extremely harmful. There is a high probability that such liquidation will lead to poisoning. This will not be noticeable immediately, since the harm from mercury will accumulate over time.
Mercury is a very toxic substance. It has the highest – 1st hazard class.
Organic metal compounds are the most harmful. Interestingly, it is not mercury itself that is destructive, but its vapor. The danger is that metal gives off vapors even at only + 18 degrees. Evaporation can only be detected using special instruments.
The vapors have no color, odor or other visible characteristics.
It is important to understand that any dose of mercury is harmful to the body. Even the amount in the thermometer is enough to poison several people. Small droplets can roll anywhere and go unnoticed.
People will continue to inhale harmful fumes for a long time.
Removing mercury is a long process.
And the worst thing is that it accumulates and spreads to all organs. The lungs are most affected, then it can be detected in the blood. Then it spreads to other organs - the gastrointestinal tract, liver, kidneys and even the brain.
The more mercury evaporated, the more severe the poisoning. Symptoms often do not begin immediately.
For many years a person may not even suspect poisoning. Poisoning can be acute or chronic.
Symptoms directly depend on the characteristics of the poisoning - acute or chronic.
Most often the latter occurs. Acute is possible in case of an accident at a large production facility. Chronic poisoning is almost always the consequence of a broken thermometer.
Common symptoms are as follows:
- disruption of the nervous system;
- problems with the gastrointestinal tract;
- bronchitis;
- pneumonia;
- pulmonary edema;
- liver and kidney failure.
Mercury poisoning severely affects the nervous system. Weakness, tiredness, fatigue occur. Often a person suffers from headaches, dizziness and irritability.
Sometimes tremor of the fingers and convulsions may occur. Blood pressure often drops and sweating increases.
The gastrointestinal tract also suffers greatly. Those poisoned by mercury vapor experience diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.
Characterized by the presence of a metallic taste. The vapors quite seriously damage the mucous membrane of the oral cavity, so stomatitis and gingivitis may appear.
In especially advanced cases, an ulcer of the esophagus, stomach, and intestines begins. The gums turn bright red and then darken.
Each case of poisoning is unique, so symptoms may vary. It all depends on individual characteristics person. A blood test will help determine whether it is mercury poisoning; if it is, then the reading will be from 180 mcg/g.
Consequences of poisoning
If you do not properly remove the remains of a broken thermometer, then it is impossible to remove mercury vapor. They will be released constantly and eventually poison the air. The consequences of such a neighborhood are very disastrous.
Inhaling vapors over many years will leave its mark. Disturbances in the functioning of various organs can be of varying degrees. It all depends on the amount of vapor inhaled and the duration.
Main consequences:
- damage to the central nervous system;
- disruption of the genitourinary system;
- diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Damage to the central nervous system is quite obvious. The person loses coordination, there are memory lapses, and outbursts of aggression. Kidney problems can also arise quite quickly and become chronic. Gastrointestinal diseases - in best case scenario ulcers
Sometimes, due to prolonged inhalation of vapors, the functioning of some organs and even systems is disrupted. This leads, in most cases, to death.
It is extremely important to remove all mercury; if this is not done, poisoning is guaranteed.
It is worth remembering the consequences and not ignoring incidents and it is necessary:
- properly prepare for cleaning;
- open the window;
- eliminate the consequences;
- collect all the fragments and mercury in a jar;
- give the jar and things for recycling.
These are short tips on how to get rid of mercury.