What happens if you touch mercury from a broken thermometer?

What happens if you touch mercury from a broken thermometer?

Mercury is a very toxic or poisonous substance that people can be exposed to in several ways. If it is swallowed, like from a broken thermometer, it mostly passes through your body and very little is absorbed. If you touch it, a small amount may pass through your skin, but not usually enough to harm you.

Can mercury be absorbed through the skin?

ROUTES OF EXPOSURE: Elemental mercury is toxic primarily through inhalation of mercury vapors. It is only slowly absorbed through the skin, although it may cause skin and eye irritation. Elemental mercury droplets may be absorbed through eye contact.

Can mercury from a thermometer hurt you?

Mercury vapor is not irritating and has no odor, so people do not know when they are breathing it. Even the small amount of mercury from a broken thermometer can cause harm, especially to children, unless it is properly cleaned up and removed.

What do you do if you accidentally touch mercury?

Mercury does not absorb through your skin instantly. Elemental mercury does absorb through your skin, but at a very slow pace (very slowly). As long as you don’t expose your skin to the metal too much and you wash your hands after then you would be fine.

How long does it take for mercury poisoning to show?

Poisoning from methylmercury can take weeks or months to appear. A chemical spill with elemental mercury or inorganic mercury might give you symptoms more rapidly. Mercury poisoning is diagnosed by testing your blood and urine for mercury levels. Urine might be collected over a 24-hour period.

Can you handle mercury with bare hands?

The chemical element mercury (Hg) is sometimes called quicksilver because of its liquid metallic appearance. While the sight of metal pouring from the hand is intriguing, mercury is extremely toxic when inhaled or touched and should never be handled with bare skin.

How do you get mercury out of a broken thermometer?

Slowly and carefully squeeze mercury onto a damp paper towel. Alternatively, use two pieces of cardboard paper to roll the mercury beads onto the paper towel or into the bag. Place the paper towel in a zip locking bag and secure. Make sure to label the bag as directed by your local health or fire department.

How much mercury is in a thermometer?

A typical mercury thermometer contains approximately 0.7 grams of mercury (700 milligrams), but larger thermometers can contain as much as three grams. Both short term and long term exposure to mercury can cause serious health problems for humans and wildlife.

Who is most at risk for mercury poisoning?

People at higher risk from mercury exposure include:

• unborn babies.
• infants.
• children up to six years of age.
• workers in industrial settings where mercury is used or produced.
• people with kidney disease.
• people born before the 1950s who were exposed to mercury in baby products and contracted pink disease.

How much mercury is toxic?

Mild, subclinical signs of central nervous system toxicity can be seen in workers exposed to an elemental mercury level in the air of 20 μg/m3 or more for several years. Kidney effects have been reported, ranging from increased protein in the urine to kidney failure.

How quickly does mercury evaporate?

Based on experiments conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the evaporation of mercury droplets in air was modeled as an exponential decay, and values for the decay constant, kd , were estimated; values for k −1 d ranged from 0.7 days to 2.2 days over a temperature range of 302 K to 310 K.

Are mercury thermometers legal?

Those days have passed. Since 2001, 20 states have banned mercury “fever thermometers” for medical use, and regulations tighten every year. But as of today the federal government has more or less killed the mercury thermometer in the United States—NIST has announced it will no longer calibrate mercury thermometers.

What happens if you accidentally break a thermometer?

Symptoms of mercury poisoning If a thermometer has broken, spilled liquid metal is unlikely to bring critical consequences, if we mean by this concept paralysis, irreversible changes in the systems of vital activity and death. Breathing in mercury vapor from a broken thermometer can manifest the following symptoms: metallic taste in the mouth;

How do you clean up a broken mercury thermometer?

Prepping for Clean Up of a Broken Mercury Thermometer 1 Have everyone else leave the area; don’t let anyone walk through the mercury on their way out. 2 DO NOT allow children to help you clean up the spill. 3 Mercury can be cleaned up easily from the following surfaces: wood, linoleum, tile and any similarly smooth surfaces.

Is Mercury in thermometers poisonous?

Mercury can be poisonous in certain situations. Most oral and rectal thermometers contain about 0.5-0.6 grams of mercury. The main health problems from mercury are from the vapors. These are produced at room temperature and especially when mercury is heated.

How do you dispose of broken thermometers?

Put on rubber, nitrile, or latex gloves before handling mercury contaminated objects or broken mercury thermometers. If there are any broken pieces of glass or sharp objects, pick them up with care. Place all broken objects on a paper towel. Fold the paper towel and seal it in a Zip-Lock style bag.