Despite the fact that medical technologies are constantly evolving and medical electronic devices are successfully used at home, a mercury thermometer for measuring body temperature remains the most common home help. It happens that the thermometer beats, and then two questions arise: "How to remove the contents of the thermometer?" and "What neutralizes mercury?"
Liquid metal
From childhood, everyone knows that metal is something strong, solid, shiny. The definition of chemical elements belonging to the group of metals was given by Mikhailo Lomonosov two and a half centuries ago. But, as always practically happens, each rule has its own exceptions. So metals do not always look what they should look like by the definition of a great Russian scientist. Here is the mercury. This is the metal occupying the 80th cell of the table of chemical elements developed by the great scientist-chemist D. I. Mendeleev. But under the conditions familiar to people, mercury is not a solid substance, it is a liquid. And this is the only liquid metal of all that is known to science today.
One can talk quite a lot about the amazing properties of this chemical element. But precisely because of its qualities, mercury is a special chemical element. Where is mercury used in modern industry, manifesting its own characteristics? There are many such industries - from the well-known medical thermometer to atomic-hydrogen energy.
Mercury at home
Mercury is recognized by the international community as one of the most aggressive pollutants in nature. But without this chemical element, it is impossible to imagine many areas of human life. Most likely, many have thermometers at home, where a mercury column acts as a temperature indicator, fluorescent lamps whose bulbs are filled with mercury vapor mixed with inert argon gas, and some batteries in mobile phones. By themselves, these items are not dangerous, but necessary and useful. But if damaged, they can cause serious health problems for everyone at home. The only question that should be asked if a broken thermometer suddenly appears at home: "What to do?"
Such a familiar thermometer
With glass thermometers filled with a mercury-filled thin vacuum flask - a capillary, and the scale of divisions, everyone is familiar from childhood. This is the most familiar and necessary medical device in any family. Yes, now you can buy electronic thermometers of various shapes - from designed for babies in the form of a nipple to non-contact. Nevertheless, the vast majority of people consider mercury thermometers to be the most accurate and practical. But only a few think about the danger lurking in the thermometer.
Why, it would seem, it was necessary to invent a mercury thermometer if a substance that helps measure body temperature is very dangerous? But it was mercury that became the liquid that meets the needs of accurate temperature measurement, expanding uniformly as it increases, rising up the capillary of the thermometer. A mercury thermometer was invented in the 18th century as an improved version of an alcohol thermometer. In our country, the Celsius scale is adopted for counting the temperature; in Western countries and in America, the temperature is measured in Fahrenheit. Using a mercury thermometer at home, few people think about the answer to the question “what will neutralize mercury” if the thermometer breaks.
Living and mercury
Mercury has been known to mankind since ancient times. Beautiful, scarlet on the fault stones of cinnabar - a natural mercury mineral, people mined to get bright paint, not for nothing that the stone in ancient Persian is called "dragon blood". And even then, mercury was used for amalgamation - one of the ways to purify gold. At that time, it was known about the toxic properties of mercury compounds, such as mercuric chloride, which to this day is used as a disinfectant. Mercury is a unique metal; it begins to melt at a temperature of approximately -39 degrees Celsius. Everyone has heard that she is very poisonous. What is dangerous for humans is mercury from a crashed thermometer, you need to clarify.
If mercury enters open air, it begins to evaporate like water, and active evaporation begins already at 18 degrees Celsius. Mercury vapor saturates the room air, especially if it is not ventilated. And such air becomes dangerous for humans, and for pets, and even for indoor plants and fish in the aquarium. A feature of this chemical element is that it is able to accumulate, that is, accumulate, in a living organism, and it is almost impossible to remove it. Mercury accumulates until it reaches a critical limit of its concentration in the body. Moreover, at the first stages of such poisoning, the symptoms are so mild that they can be mistaken for fatigue, a mild cold, but not at all for a serious health problem that is life threatening.
What's happening?
Mercury is dangerous for all living things, it disrupts metabolic processes, a person initially feels weakness and apathy, which over time develop into impaired functioning of all organs: kidneys, liver, heart, lungs suffer from excess mercury in the body. A fatal outcome can cause mercury poisoning from a thermometer. Symptoms and consequences of inhaling mercury vapor or, even worse, ingestion of mercury through the mouth can be very scary.
Mercury poisoning, like any other toxic and dangerous substances, can be acute, but can be chronic. Acute poisoning is characterized by headache, vomiting and salivation, sore throat and abdomen, swelling and bleeding of the gums, body temperature may increase. Acute poisoning occurs approximately 2 hours after a significant dose of mercury has entered the body.
Chronic poisoning is the result of prolonged inhalation of mercury vapor in small concentrations. It often develops in those people in whose home a mercury thermometer was once broken, but the substance was not cleaned and neutralized in the way it should have been done.
If it happened
A broken thermometer is, it would seem, such a trifle. You just need to collect the fragments, remove the mercury balls, well, even wash the floor. But this is not so at all. A crashed mercury thermometer is a serious danger to all households. Mercury vapor poisoning begins as soon as this substance enters open air from a sealed glass flask. The question of what neutralizes mercury is fading into the background, giving way to the question of how to collect it. Sweeping begins, a vacuum cleaner, wet rags are connected. But what people usually clean up is strictly forbidden to use, removing a crashed thermometer.
Mercury is a liquid, and it’s impossible to collect it, say, like clay, into a ball, and it is also impossible to wipe it with dry rags. From the blow that breaks the capsule of the thermometer, the substance disintegrates into tiny particles flying around the room. Working with a broom only exacerbates the situation, as sprigs of sorghum or synthetic bristles crush mercury balls into even smaller parts. A vacuum cleaner will not help either, since, on the one hand, it removes mercury, and on the other hand, along with exhaust air in the form of fine dust, it is sent back throughout the room, and the vacuum cleaner that has removed mercury will then have to be disposed of, because it will have to be cleaned of tiny particles mercury clogged in all the details will not work.
With wet rags, mercury cannot be removed, and particles of the substance that has begun its poisonous work can get into the cracks in the floor, into the wool fibers of the carpet. If the room where the thermometer crashed has a carpet or a rug on the floor, then it is easier to dispose of it by wrapping it in a tight plastic bag and removing it from the room. But mercury balls are most conveniently removed from the floor with an ordinary medical pear, collecting mercury in a glass jar.
Cleaning a broken mercury thermometer in steps
If there is a broken thermometer, what should I do? The answer to this question will consist of the following recommendations:
- Remove from the room, and preferably from the apartment, all household members, including animals, for a walk until the cleaning is complete.
- Close the door of the room.
- Open all windows wide. The influx of cold air will inhibit the active evaporation of mercury and will reduce its concentration.
- Put on a medical mask, and preferably a respirator, and rubber gloves, change into clothes that will not be a pity to part with after cleaning.
- Prepare a medical pear - a syringe, a glass jar with a tightly screwed lid, potassium permanganate or bleach, cold water.
- Turn on bright lighting, because mercury is shiny metal, and it will be clearly visible in bright light.
- It is most convenient to collect mercury balls by sucking them in with a syringe and lowering them into a jar; With this medical item, it’s easier to fetch mercury from slots in the floor and under the baseboards. There are recommendations for cleaning mercury with metal wire, sheets of paper, but mercury constantly rolls and crumbles into small droplets at the slightest careless movement, so there is nothing more convenient than a douche at home.
- After the mercury is collected, the place where the thermometer was broken should be treated with a concentrated solution of disinfectants - potassium permanganate or bleach, diluting them with cold water.
- A jar of collected mercury, a syringe, fragments of a broken thermometer, a gauze bandage, a respirator, clothes should be taken to the SES, where they must be taken for disposal. In no case should these items be thrown into the trash.
What neutralizes mercury?
Mercury is a hazardous substance to living matter. It belongs to hazard class 1 in accordance with the regulatory document - GOST 17.4.1.02-83. The solution for industrial mercury demercurization is sulfur powder. It enters into a chemical reaction with the metal, turning it into a non-volatile compound - mercury sulfide. This substance is already quite simple to remove, since it is solid, unlike the liquid metal itself, striving to scatter from any touch into small balls.
At home, sulfur powder is rarely found for cleaning up a crashed mercury thermometer. But mercury and potassium permanganate, or mercury and chlorine-containing detergents will neutralize harmful liquid metal. Yes, it is best to first remove the mercury as thoroughly as possible, and then treat all surfaces in the room with bleach or potassium permanganate. The floor can simply be poured with a concentrated solution of chlorine-based detergent, for example for disinfecting toilets. A second clean-up is best done in a day.
Which is better - bleach or potassium permanganate?
It is only in disaster films or action tales that a hero appears who saves everyone and eliminates imminent death. In life, in any critical situations, it is better to do everything yourself and carefully, not counting on outside help, because only in large cities are there services that are professionally involved in the disposal of household problem waste and cleaning the premises in accordance with the danger that has arisen. In order to independently get rid of the dangerous consequences of a crashed thermometer, it is best to use improvised means no less effective than the means of specialists.
You can neutralize mercury residues with potassium permanganate or bleach. Solutions should be concentrated, which means sufficiently caustic. In 1 liter of potassium permanganate solution, pour 1 tablespoon of vinegar essence and add 1 tablespoon of ordinary salt. Potassium permanganate for cleaning will have a practically black tint, and it will certainly leave indelible marks on the floor surface. It is more convenient and easier to use chlorine-based products for cleaning and disinfecting houses, the same "White" for example. This product treats the surface after mercury for 15 minutes, then rinsing with clean water. This cleaning should be repeated as often as possible within 2-3 weeks.
For complete peace of mind
So, the mercury thermometer still crashed. But demercurization was carried out correctly, carefully, all dangerous things were disposed of according to the rules in a special organization dealing with similar problems. And to reassure yourself and your family, you can use a special mercury vapor analyzer to check the result. It is a test strip that, when reacted with mercury vapor, changes color. This is a cheaper and more affordable way to check the safety of a room than to call specialists to conduct a similar examination at home. Instructions for using test strips are attached to each analyzer kit, and you can purchase it in specialized stores.