MERCURY DISPOSAL SERVICE №1
If a thermometer breaks and mercury spills, the question arises:
“How to collect mercury correctly?”
1. Immediately remove all people from the room where the thermometer broke. This applies primarily to children and the elderly. Don’t forget about pets.
2. Limit the location of the “accident”, as mercury sticks to surfaces and can be easily spread on shoe soles (animal paws) to other areas of the room. To avoid the spread of mercury beyond the contaminated area, demercurization (removal of mercury and its compounds by physical-chemical or mechanical methods) is carried out from the periphery towards the center of contamination.
3. Call the City Mercury Service in St. Petersburg and call an Expert to eliminate the contamination, by phone: +7 (812) 309-13-43 or +7 (812) 649-98-03
If the outside temperature is significantly lower than the indoor temperature, you need to open the windows, because at lower temperatures the release of mercury vapor decreases. However, before you collect the mercury, a draft is absolutely unacceptable, because it will cause the mercury balls to “scatter” around the room and break into small particles that will settle on the walls and furniture. Therefore, isolate the room as much as possible – close all the doors tightly.
Attention, self-collection of mercury is dangerous! No household protective equipment can block toxic mercury vapors! No matter how many masks you wear, you are completely defenseless. Only special protection “from MERCURY” can block access to mercury vapors.
How to protect yourself from mercury correctly: Read…
The place where the mercury has spilled must be illuminated. A flashlight or a table lamp will do for this purpose. To ensure maximum visibility of all the droplets for their high-quality collection, place the backlight on the side.
Now the most important thing is to remove the metallic mercury thoroughly and quickly..
It is more convenient to collect mercury balls in the following way: use one sheet of paper or foil as a scoop, and roll the balls onto the paper scoop with a soft brush or another sheet.
Do not use a broom or a hard brush for this purpose, which will make the poisonous mercury balls even smaller.
You can use a piece of cotton wool soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate (0.2%) to collect mercury. Carefully shake the collected mercury from a piece of paper or cotton wool into a prepared glass container filled with a solution of potassium permanganate or just cold water. – Then you need to draw smaller balls into a prepared rubber bulb or syringe..
– Stick very small drops onto tape or adhesive plaster.
– Sprinkle the mercury that has clogged the cracks in the floor with sand, which will easily sweep it out onto paper with a brush..
-If the floor is wooden and there are cracks between the boards, there is a high probability that several silver drops have “hidden” in shelters and will do their dirty work at room temperature. In this case, the owner will have to do an unscheduled renovation of the apartment – there is no other way to get rid of the uninvited chemical guest.
Place sand containing mercury particles, a rubber bulb (or syringe) and mercury from a broken thermometer into a jar of water. Close the jar tightly and keep it away from heating devices..
It is very difficult to collect mercury if the thermometer breaks on a sofa, carpet or other porous or fleecy surface. In this case, it is better to call professionals for demercurization (removal of mercury). This is the simplest and most reasonable way! «Mercury Expert»
If you step on mercury, clean and wash the soles of your shoes with a strong, almost black solution of potassium permanganate.
If collecting mercury takes a long time, take a break every 15 minutes and go out into the fresh air.
Be sure to familiarize yourself with the consequences and signs of poisoning.: Read
At numerous requests from people who do not have the opportunity to call the mercury service for testing. We have created a mercury contamination test. Now everyone can roughly estimate the degree of mercury contamination depending on various situations. And also following the instructions to properly eliminate the consequences of a broken thermometer.
The “correct” method of collecting mercury from the point of view of ordinary people is often discussed on forums and blogs, advising the use of ineffective and sometimes dangerous methods: a magnet, a vacuum cleaner, a broom and other improvised means. So, let’s consider each of these methods separately.
Even a basic school course is enough to understand that this is unrealistic. Although mercury is a metal, it belongs to the class of diamagnetics. These substances are absolutely indifferent to any external magnets and do not react in any way to the fields formed when they approach.
This means that the question of how to collect mercury with a magnet has only one correct answer – no way! You can move the magnet over the carpet, sofa and other spill areas as much as you like – the silver balls will not move a millimeter. Mercury is not magnetized!
This method is only good for self-reassurance – it certainly won’t do any harm, but it won’t help one bit either. So put the magnetic bars away in a far corner, mercury is not magnetized, and don’t waste time on a futile exercise, especially since every minute counts when pouring mercury!
Let’s repeat the question: Is mercury magnetic? – No! Mercury is not magnetic.!
The answer to the frequently asked question: How to collect mercury from the floor? It seems very simple and logical. Purely theoretically, you can sweep up the shards of a broken thermometer from the floor, along with some of the metal balls. However, the air currents that will inevitably rise when sweeping will spread the remaining molecules throughout the entire apartment, thereby increasing the area of contamination.. This means that in this way you will only make the situation worse, turning mercury collection into a futile and unsafe activity.
Of course, modern household appliances can solve almost any problem, thereby making life easier for their owners. However, the question of how to collect mercury cannot be solved even by the most powerful vacuum cleaner. It will, of course, suck in some of the metal, but small microscopic balls will immediately fly out of the filter. Moreover, during operation the vacuum cleaner heats up, which only accelerates the formation of toxic fumes that are dangerous to life and health..
If you nevertheless unknowingly picked up a vacuum cleaner, you will subsequently have to part with expensive equipment – metal molecules will settle on the inside of the structure, gradually contaminating the atmosphere of the apartment with toxic chemical compounds. Such household appliances cannot simply be thrown into the trash can – they must be disposed of in accordance with environmental safety rules. Therefore, when faced with the problem of how to collect spilled mercury, do not under any circumstances pick up a vacuum cleaner.!
Summarizing all of the above, we should emphasize the mandatory safety rules that will help preserve the health, and perhaps even the life, of you and your loved ones.:
If a thermometer breaks, lower the room temperature below 18 as quickly as possible, while avoiding drafts.!
When collecting mercury, do not forget about personal protective equipment: rubber gloves, a respirator mask “from mercury” (it cannot be replaced with anything, including a homemade gauze bandage soaked in a soda solution), shoe covers (it is also possible to use strong plastic bags placed on the feet and tied around the ankles with tape or adhesive tape).
Do not use a vacuum cleaner or broom under any circumstances. – It is better to collect metal balls with a piece of paper, a syringe or an aspirator.
After the mercury has been thoroughly collected, take care to check the effectiveness of the cleaning. Air analysis for mercury vapors with a gas analyzer gives an immediate result. And indicates uncleaned areas of contamination.
And most importantly, do not forget that even a thorough knowledge of how to properly collect mercury does not provide a complete guarantee of the success of this event. Only professional demercurization can ensure the safety of residential premises from chemical compounds of this poison by 100%..
The staff of Emergency Ecological Assistance professionally approach the neutralization of any emergency situation related to mercury. The work is carried out under the strict control of a special device for measuring toxic vapors, which means that upon completion of demercurization you will be able to see with your own eyes the safety of the atmosphere in your home.
