Parents have been telling their children about careful handling of thermometers since childhood. How dangerous is a broken thermometer in an apartment? Mercury vapor poses a threat to health and life when the metal begins to oxidize and evaporate. If you are afraid to use such a thermometer, use products that do not contain mercury.
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The first Fahrenheit thermometer. Note the "Blood Heat" label (approx. 98°F).
What is mercury
Let's first understand what mercury actually is. In Latin its name sounds like Hydrargyrum . It is an element of the sixth period of the periodic table of elements, which D. Mendeleev gave us. The atomic number of mercury in the table is 80, and it belongs to the zinc subgroup.
Mercury is not a gas, liquid or metal - it is a transition metal. At room temperature it is a heavy, silvery-white liquid. The most important feature for the common person is the extreme danger of mercury vapor, which is very poisonous.
65 million years ago the Earth's atmosphere was polluted with mercury
There are only two chemical elements that, under normal conditions, are in a liquid state. Mercury is one of them along with bromine.
Chronic poisoning
Mercurialism is a general intoxication resulting from prolonged exposure (more than two months) to mercury vapors and compounds, the concentration of which significantly exceeds the norm. Symptoms depend on the degree of damage to the body:
- severe fatigue;
- constant drowsiness with regular sleep;
- weakness;
- dizziness and headaches;
- emotional instability.
The person becomes irritable, memory weakens, and attention decreases. After a while, a “mercury tremor” of the fingers, lips and eyelids appears, arising from excitement. There is a frequent urge to defecate and urinate, the sense of smell, tactile sensitivity, and taste are dulled, and the person sweats profusely. There is a noticeable enlargement of the thyroid gland, heart rhythm is disturbed, and blood pressure decreases.
Micromercurialism is a chronic intoxication with the listed symptoms, which is the result of constant exposure to small doses of mercury over a long period of time (5 or more years).
What is the danger of mercury
Despite the fact that mercury looks like something integral, it emits a lot of vapors, which, when entering the body, lead not only to lung damage, but also to other often irreversible changes. It is especially dangerous at the stage of intrauterine development.
When ingested, mercury has toxic effects on the digestive, immune and nervous systems. In addition, the skin, kidneys, lungs and even eyes are affected. It’s no wonder that the World Health Organization (WHO) lists mercury as one of the top ten substances that pose the greatest threat to public health.
It's better not to do that.
Mercury is most dangerous in the form of vapor or solution. When it gets into water, it leads to the death of microorganisms and remains in it forever in the form of that same solution. As a result, it can get into the water supply system and harm an entire settlement. Moreover, even a minimal amount of mercury is enough to affect a person.
There are also two types of mercury compounds - organic and inorganic. The former (for example, dimethylmercury) are much more dangerous, as they interact more effectively with the body's systems.
How many tables of chemical elements are there really?
You are heavy...
We all have some mercury in us—the average person has about 13 mg of it.
Have you ever lifted a 10 liter bucket filled to the brim with water? So, if there was mercury in this bucket, you would not be able to lift it. 1 liter of mercury weighs 13.6 kg.
There was a time when mercury was considered an excellent talisman; So, the ancient Egyptians carried a bottle of it with them - for good luck. And their priests placed small vessels filled with mercury into the throats of the mummies of the pharaohs; it was believed that they would protect their owner in the afterlife.
en.wikipedia.org
How is mercury mined?
Mercury is produced industrially. To extract it, you have to process a mineral called cinnabar or red stone. Metal extraction is carried out by oxidative distillation roasting. As a result, mercury vapor is formed. They have a high temperature and must undergo additional processing. These vapors are condensed and purified, yielding the usual mercury.
Large deposits of mercury are currently located in Spain and Slovenia.
Very rarely, mercury can still be found in deposits in liquid form. However, at the current level of technology this is not so important. In the old days, finding mercury in a “ready” form was really important.
Methods and methods for treating intoxication
If the described signs of poisoning are detected, you must urgently call a doctor. Before his arrival, the victim must be given first aid to alleviate his condition. How to help with poisoning at home?
What to do:
- The victim is taken out of the dangerous room and is not allowed to continue breathing the substance;
- Wash the eyes and all mucous membranes with cool water, rinse the mouth with a solution of manganese;
- Clothes that have been exposed to mercury are immediately wrapped in polyethylene;
- Gastric lavage in case of poisoning is only permissible using a tube;
- The victim is given large quantities of milk to drink.
After the doctor arrives, the poisoned person is sent to a medical facility. Treatment of poisoning takes a long time and includes various procedures. The course is determined individually for each patient. First of all, the mercury antidote is introduced - Unithiol . Depending on the severity of the poisoning, a specific regimen for administering the substance is selected.
During the treatment process, drugs are used to restore the functioning of internal organs after poisoning. Be sure to use antiallergic drugs, various vitamin complexes, and drugs to strengthen the immune system.
The average duration of treatment is thirty to forty days. Mild forms of poisoning can be treated at home.
Use of mercury in medicine
Continuing the topic of the dangers of mercury, it is worth noting that previously people did not know about it and, on the contrary, were treated with it in its pure form. Until the 60s of the last century, people did not think about possible problems. They put dental fillings that contained mercury compounds, took medications that contained it, and were not at all worried about a broken thermometer. Moreover, many children then deliberately broke thermometers in order to play with mercury. It shimmers interestingly, and if you don’t know about its danger, then everything is fine. Would you say that this is so-so entertainment? Then remember how everyone was spinning spinners.
They flow and merge, but also poison the air.
If we take more ancient times, then in the Middle Ages it was the norm to give a person a glass of mercury to drink. It was believed that the heavy liquid would push through everything unnecessary in the body, and at the same time straighten the intestines. History is silent about how this treatment ended, but it is unlikely that the patients lived happily ever after.
Until 1967 in the USSR and until the late 1970s in the USA, mercury was actively used to treat syphilis due to its high resistance to other drugs. True, after such “treatment” people’s hair fell out and other body functions were disrupted.
You can give as many examples as you like of antiseptics, diuretics, laxatives and other drugs that included mercury . Now it remains only in thermometers (not in all countries) and as a preservative for some vaccines, but in minimal doses.
First aid
If it is known for sure that poisoning is caused by mercury vapor, then you should go out into fresh air. First aid begins with washing the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth, eyes and open areas of the skin with a weak solution of potassium permanganate or running water. In this case you need to make sure that there are no disorders of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.
If there are any, then it is first necessary to eliminate life-threatening conditions by performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, stopping or slowing down bleeding, etc. Gastric lavage is carried out only through a tube using potassium permanganate dissolved in cold water. This helps reduce the cauterizing effect of the metal . Washing is carried out several times a day. After the procedure, additional sorbents are prescribed, which are taken 4 times a day.
In case of mercury poisoning, the antidote “Unitiol” is administered intravenously. Subsequently, to flush out the poison from the body, diuretics and solutions are administered, as well as Unithiol intramuscularly. If such a need arises, hemodialysis is also used. For ulcerative lesions of various organs, symptomatic treatment is carried out.
What to do if the thermometer is broken
A broken thermometer may seem like a minor problem, but it's still a problem. It will contain at least 2 grams of mercury, which is not enough. Even on government portals, in particular on mos.ru, there is an answer to the question of what to do in this case.
If you spill a small amount of mercury (a broken thermometer), first remove people and animals from the room, then open the window and close the door. It is also necessary to protect the respiratory system with a mask or bandage. After this, immediately begin collecting mercury.
It looks very harmless, but you shouldn't relax.
Two grams of mercury, which are contained in one thermometer, in a closed room with a volume of 20 cubic meters create a vapor concentration that is thousands of times higher than the level safe for humans.
How to collect mercury
When collecting mercury, do not sweep it away with a broom under any circumstances, so as not to provoke the formation of fine mercury dust. The larger the drops, the better. A vacuum cleaner is also a bad help, since the evaporated mercury will pass through the filters and end up in the air in an even more dangerous form.
A small amount of mercury leaked from a thermometer can be collected using an ordinary medical bulb or a sheet of paper and a knitting needle or thick needle. Pieces of plaster can be used to collect the smallest drops.
Put everything you collected and what you used to collect it in a jar and close the lid tightly. After this, thoroughly clean the scene. A good option would be to wipe this area with a solution of manganese or a soap-soda solution. When you finish cleaning, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap.
Wash your hands thoroughly after cleaning up mercury.
How to throw away a broken thermometer and the mercury from it
Never throw collected mercury down the garbage disposal or sewer. This may lead to a further risk of uncontrolled infection. Place the jar of collected waste on the balcony or in the garage and, as soon as possible, hand it over to the demercurization center for disposal.
How to understand that you have been poisoned by mercury
Symptoms of mercury poisoning take approximately 8 to 24 hours to appear. The main symptoms include general weakness, pain when swallowing, headache and fever. After some time, the gums and stomach begin to ache, and gastric disorders and even pneumonia appear. There have even been cases of death.
Skin cream can cause poisoning. How to avoid this?
First actions
If you know how to act in such situations, then this situation is not terrible - just an unpleasant accident. To eliminate the consequences, you need to immediately take action so that the mercury does not have time to spread throughout the apartment.
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Vacancy of premises
If a child breaks a thermometer, then you need to remove the child from the room as soon as possible. All people who will not collect should also leave it. At the same time, it is worth making sure that the shoes and clothes of all these people who have had at least some contact with mercury are thrown away.
It cannot be washed in an automatic machine, because otherwise the metal will settle there and subsequently this equipment cannot be used later. You need to call a mercury disposal service and start collecting the substance yourself. The first is required because you cannot throw metal into a regular garbage disposal, since it must be destroyed so that it does not harm anyone.
Airing the room
It is worth remembering the properties of mercury, namely its evaporation temperature. It is worth bringing the room to a temperature not exceeding 18 degrees Celsius. In most cases, this will require turning off the heating and opening a window. But you should not create a draft, since in this case air currents can not only spread mercury throughout the room, but also break it into smaller particles. Therefore, only one window needs to be opened.
Which thermometer is more accurate? Electronic or mercury?
Experts often have to answer this question. They usually say that a mercury thermometer would be more accurate, but you should also have an electronic one at home. They explain this by saying that both instruments may have errors and their readings must be double-checked.
Under normal conditions, mercury is always liquid.
The error of a mercury thermometer is approximately 0.1 degrees. For electronic deviations are typically in the range of 0.2 to 0.4 degrees. The largest error in non-contact thermometers is up to 0.5 degrees. If the sensor of a non-contact thermometer is not wiped, then the deviations may even amount to 1.5-2 degrees.
It must be remembered that the peculiarity of a mercury thermometer is that it shows the maximum temperature during the measurement, while an electronic one usually gives average readings, and a non-contact one gives instantaneous readings. Body temperature can change within 5 minutes within one degree. This should also be kept in mind.
The use of a non-contact thermometer is most appropriate for measuring the temperature of visitors to public places or airplane passengers, as well as children. In these cases, it will not be possible to detain the person for 5 minutes for a more accurate temperature measurement.
Precautions and what not to do
A mercury thermometer requires careful handling, and therefore many try to switch to electronic ones, or follow precautionary measures for using this device. It is worth understanding that mercury evaporation is very dangerous for the human body, and therefore you should approach its use with caution.
First of all, you need to take precautions to avoid such a situation. The most important rule is to store it out of the reach of children. You shouldn't even give it to a child to hold it.
The device must be stored in a special durable case. This type is usually made of plastic. When “knocking down” the temperature you need to be careful. You should not take the thermometer with wet hands, as it may accidentally slip out. You also need to stay away from hard objects that could break the device if you hit them.
A child's temperature should only be measured in the presence of an adult. It is worth holding the child's hand, since he may simply forget that there is some object under his armpit. Since mercury is a toxic substance of the first class of danger, it is necessary to immediately take the first steps to eliminate it, and not panic.
Prevention
It’s easy to avoid poisoning at home.
Prevention will help protect yourself from unpleasant consequences. Measures:
- The thermometer should not be left in places accessible to children;
- Children should only use the device under adult supervision;
- If a thermometer breaks, you need to clean the room as quickly as possible.
What to do if the thermometer shattered into pieces and mercury scattered on the floor? In such a case, they perform actions that can protect the people around them.
Actions:
- Urgently open the windows in the room, but do not allow drafts - small balls will simply blow away;
- They put on unnecessary clothes, gloves on their hands, and a damp bandage on their face;
- 2 grams of potassium permanganate are diluted in a liter of water;
- Prepare a soap solution;
- Mercury balls are collected using paper or tape; you cannot use a vacuum cleaner;
- Wash the floor with soapy water;
- Place mercury balls in a container with potassium permanganate;
- Clothes, shoes, gloves are placed in plastic bags, tied tightly and, together with mercury, handed over to the emergency service;
- Afterwards, take a shower, wash all mucous membranes, take activated carbon - a tablet per kilogram of weight.
Mercury metal poisoning at home is possible. Care must be taken when using a thermometer. In emergency situations, be sure to call specialists to avoid negative health consequences.
