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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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When the molten helmet reaches my shoulders it's really hot. TCSS
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Did anyone that a have the chance to check out the video showing the mercury off gassing?
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Permalink Reply by Harry Franklin on
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Oh ya there are... mercury is an expensive clean up. Look out for the new light bulbs too.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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Awesome video Mike. I can remember in grade school science class, the teacher put mercury in his bare hands to show us, and moved it around with his bare hands on the table top! That was about 30 years or so ago. I wonder where he is now?
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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Very interesting. Watching the mervury vapourisinb was fascinating.
Does anyone know the amount of mercury that the nice 'green' light bulbs contain? We're being forced into using them here, incandescent bulbs are being phased out across the country. The video advised that carperts and like material cannot be dec0ntaminated - so if somebody drops a flouro light bulb on their capeted floor, and it breaks, do we tell them to have that room re-carpeted? How far do we take this? From memory, there was one thermometer broken during my childhood (mercury of course), but the number of lights bulbs?
How far do we take this? Isn't heavy metal poisoning a gradual thing? Where the odd small exposure over a lifetime is unlikely to cause any noticable harm for most people (pregnant women and small children excluded)? Like many other people, I played with mercury as a child, as a very young child! To try and reduce the fear factor,the dentist I was taken too gave small children a very small glass phial with a drop of mercury in it. The phials had a rubber stopper which I know I found easy to remove.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Buck on
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that was neat how they did that video.
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6 feet under?
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another way to learn something new... : )
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keep up the great forums
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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Been there done that but it was a maintenance crew using a vacuum cleaner in a local school.... let me say OUCH! the clean up costs were crazy...
Great post Mike!
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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In a mercury situation, the states DEM (Department of Enviromental Management) Hazmat team will be called to the scene to evaluate the situation. In most (if not all) scenerio's a clean up company is called in to contain and remove the issue. I know that the RISD (Rhode Island school of design) has been dealing with Hg issues for a few years and have had repeated occurances where they were making upgrades to the facility and had to call Clean Harbors in to remove the mercury.
I also remember being a Sophomore in high school and in my physics class when my teacher dropped a rack of thermometers. About 1/3 of the rack's thermometers broke and the "little balls of Mercury" rolled all around. The teacher (crazy woman) took a dust-pan and little broom and swept them up and threw them into the trash. Thinking back it makes me a little sick to think of this
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