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Is There Really A Hazard For Broken Thermometer Calls
Executive Summary: If you respond to a call involving spilled elemental Mercury, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO ANY CLEANUP. Mercury starts to off gas immediately and the video included at the bottom of this post graphically demonstrates what happens using new technology that allows you to actually see the vapors coming off a small spill onto carpeting. If you mishandle this call, your department could find itself liable for all cleanup costs that can run in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Don't be part of the problem. Be a part of the solution and make sure that a professional bonded remediation company is contacted in conjunction with a certified industrial hygienist to perform air monitoring and sampling for determining levels of contamination. You should act as consultants on situations like this, rather than responders. Just walking into the residence on what may be considered a minor "no big deal" call will contaminate you and your crew. This is a true hazardous materials emergency that must be dealt with. Please share this with others.
Elemental mercury, you know, the cool stuff that makes things shiny, and is the original heavy metal. Not to get too far out there on the fringe here on the FFN, but have you ever had to respond to a reported broken thermometer or deal with spilled mercury? Did you know how much it costs to remediate a house where the unsuspecting resident used a vacuum cleaner to clean up the spilled Mercury? The costs for just a couple of rooms are well over 30K, I couldn't even imagine what a whole house would cost.
Mercury and most of its compounds are extremely toxic and are generally handled with care; in cases of spills involving mercury (such as from certain thermometers or fluorescent light bulbs) specific cleaning procedures are used to avoid toxic exposure.
Mercury can be found in pre-1970 electrical switches as well as blood pressure cuffs and thermometers.
Mercury can be inhaled and absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes, so containers of mercury are securely sealed to avoid spills and evaporation. Heating of mercury, or compounds of mercury that may decompose when heated, is always carried out with adequate ventilation in order to avoid exposure to mercury vapor.
It's hard to always visualize some of this hazmat stuff, so here's a cool video link that shows you graphically how intense the off-gassing of mercury is. I had no idea until recently how volatile Mercury is when spilled. This video demonstrates the effects of a spill with several examples. This is a must for in-house fire department training to educate you on the risks involved with a mercury spill.
http://wbgustream.bgsu.edu/bgsu/epa/index-fl.html
The most toxic forms of mercury are its organic compounds, such as dimethylmercury and methylmercury. Mercury can cause both chronic and acute poisoning and will definitely ruin your day.
TCSS, Mike from Santa Barbara
Don't be part of the problem. Be a part of the solution and make sure that a professional bonded remediation company is contacted in conjunction with a certified industrial hygienist to perform air monitoring and sampling for determining levels of contamination. You should act as consultants on situations like this, rather than responders. Just walking into the residence on what may be considered a minor "no big deal" call will contaminate you and your crew. This is a true hazardous materials emergency that must be dealt with. Please share this with others.
Elemental mercury, you know, the cool stuff that makes things shiny, and is the original heavy metal. Not to get too far out there on the fringe here on the FFN, but have you ever had to respond to a reported broken thermometer or deal with spilled mercury? Did you know how much it costs to remediate a house where the unsuspecting resident used a vacuum cleaner to clean up the spilled Mercury? The costs for just a couple of rooms are well over 30K, I couldn't even imagine what a whole house would cost.
Mercury and most of its compounds are extremely toxic and are generally handled with care; in cases of spills involving mercury (such as from certain thermometers or fluorescent light bulbs) specific cleaning procedures are used to avoid toxic exposure.
Mercury can be found in pre-1970 electrical switches as well as blood pressure cuffs and thermometers.
Mercury can be inhaled and absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes, so containers of mercury are securely sealed to avoid spills and evaporation. Heating of mercury, or compounds of mercury that may decompose when heated, is always carried out with adequate ventilation in order to avoid exposure to mercury vapor.
It's hard to always visualize some of this hazmat stuff, so here's a cool video link that shows you graphically how intense the off-gassing of mercury is. I had no idea until recently how volatile Mercury is when spilled. This video demonstrates the effects of a spill with several examples. This is a must for in-house fire department training to educate you on the risks involved with a mercury spill.
http://wbgustream.bgsu.edu/bgsu/epa/index-fl.html
The most toxic forms of mercury are its organic compounds, such as dimethylmercury and methylmercury. Mercury can cause both chronic and acute poisoning and will definitely ruin your day.
TCSS, Mike from Santa Barbara
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by BillySFCVFD on
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Good to know Mike. Leave it up to you to fill us in.
When I was about 8 years old and in the hospital for routine surgery a nurse came into my room to take my temperature with a glass mercury filled thermometer, that was years ago, I'm old. Anyway. she dropped the thermometer and it broke the end off. She then picked it up, came over to me and said hold your hand out, I wanna show you something really cool. She then poured the mercury into my bare hand for me to see that neat shiny, moving metal stuff. Do you think the mercury caused brain damage because twelve years later I got married to my now ex? TCSS
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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yes, you have been exposed and are officially mad as a hatter... (they used to use Mercury in hats to form them, hence mad as a hatter, folks would lose their minds, go mad...) so, with that analogy, you obviously was not responsible for your actions due to intense adolescent mercury poisoning... I guess your just not right... : ) ms
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Thanks for clearing that up for me. And I thought I made that decision because it was in the 70s cuz "If you remember the 60s and 70s you weren't there". Quote from an old Hippie. TCSS
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On the serious side now. Let's say I broke a small household mercury laden thingy. Short of calling out HazMat, how do I deal with clean up? TCSS
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Mike,
One of the biggest hazards from Mercury spills is that people don't recognize the hazard and just wash the liquid heavy metal down the sink. In small amounts, mercury isn't a big hazard to a municipal water system, but those municipal water filtration systems are not equipped to really filter Mercury out of drinking water. That means that Mercury spills can end up in someone elses drinking water, which can lead to ingested Mercury poisoning, liver damage, cancer and a host of other medical problems for the exposee. Now multiply that one broken thermometer by the hundreds that are broken per year in a big city, and you have a large potential hazmat problem.
The best way to handle mercury spills is to purchase Mercury spill kits and train your people how to use them.
Here's a link to a massive list of companies that sell Mercury spill kits.
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=Mercury+spill+kit&FORM=MSNH11
My department's hazmat team has Mercury spill kits very similar to this one: http://www.abssupport.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Pr...
This is a hazmat technician-level skill in my state, but we don't roll the entire hazmat team for this.
We just take the spill kit and enough PPE for two hazmat technicians since the spills are a very small quantity.
We wear Tyvek non-encapsulated Level B with two layers of nitrile EMS exam gloves.
Respiratory protection is full-face Level C with organic vapor (activated charcoal) vapor cannister filters.
If the Mercury is spilled on solid surfaces (tile, linoleum, tabletop, counter top) the spill can be completely encapsulated by the spill kit. If the Mercury is spilled on pervious surfaces like carpet or fabric, then a commercial cleanup company has to deal with the spill.
With the advent of cheap digital thermometers, we're advocating that households get rid of their mercury thermometers. We hold a Household Hazmat Round-Up twice a year. I'll put some details about this event type in another post.
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Thanks Ben. Looks like there's no "home remedy" for mercury clean up without a kit and trained people. Very toxic stuff, I'm making sure my VFD has both. Mad Hatter, TCSS
I asked the experts and got the answer.
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Is that why you Left Coast guys wear those turtle helmets? No mercury was harmed in the making of that fiberglass shell. :-)
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But our helmets can tell the temperature. When it melts it's too hot. TCSS
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Permalink Reply by Jes on
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I think I must have inhaled the vapors from that, and it caused me to marry my now ex. I got this visual of divorce court.. "But your Honor...the mercury made me do it!" Take care, and stay safe!
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The thermometer defense. It might catch on, ya think? TCSS
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So can our leathers helmets. It just takes higher temperatures to melt them.
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