What to do if a mercury thermometer breaks. Who can help. Symptoms of mercury poisoning

It was not by chance that this metal was chosen as a filler for the thermometer.

Firstly, already at -38.8 0 C, mercury turns into a liquid state. Secondly, it reacts very sensitively to temperature changes. Thirdly, the expansion of mercury occurs very uniformly, almost linearly. Fourthly, it does not stick to the glass of the tube in which it is sealed.

Liquid mercury vapor is very poisonous

Such properties of mercury make temperature measurements as accurate as possible; neither alcohol nor helium thermometers can compete with mercury thermometers here. And that would be absolutely wonderful, you see. But everything is ruined by one weighty “but”. Mercury (or rather, its vapors) is extremely toxic and dangerous. Respectively, broken thermometer has quite serious consequences.

IN regular thermometer contains up to 5 g of metal. Having broken free, under the influence of above-zero temperatures in the apartment, the mercury from the broken thermometer begins to evaporate intensively. After a few hours the concentration mercury vapor in a room of 15-18 m2 will exceed the maximum acceptable indicators 50, or even 100 times!

What does this mean for a person? Mercury affects the nervous system. Primary symptoms poisoning - nausea, headache, metallic taste in the mouth. If exposure to vapor continues (for example, not everything has been removed), it will begin to malfunction over time. heartbeat, tremble eyelids and hands. The victim will suffer from insomnia, stomach problems and bleeding gums. This is why a broken thermometer in an apartment is dangerous.

Keep in mind that symptoms of mercury poisoning may not appear for some time. Therefore, if you broke the thermometer, put it away, and a few months later you began to notice the described health problems, please do not delay visiting the doctor! It is quite difficult to remove mercury from the body, and the sooner therapy begins, the less your body will suffer.

But, of course, the easiest way to avoid the hassle of contaminating a room with mercury is to replace the old thermometer with an electronic one.

Symptoms and first aid for mercury poisoning

If it does happen that a mercury thermometer breaks in your home, please note that the following is strictly prohibited:

1. Start collecting mercury from the broken thermometer with a vacuum cleaner or broom. You will break the tiny balls of mercury into even smaller ones, and then they will be completely impossible to remove from the room. In addition, a running vacuum cleaner heats up, which also stimulates evaporation. Well, the last argument is that both the broom and the vacuum cleaner will have to be disposed of.
2. Dispose of mercury in a garbage disposal or down a sewer. Just because you flush it down the toilet, it will not lose its toxic properties. Only now the whole house will be under threat. The same goes for the garbage disposal.
3. Allow a draft. It will certainly scatter balls of mercury throughout the house, which will significantly complicate the task of collecting and neutralizing this substance.

Mercury Spill Precautions

What to do?

The process of removing mercury has its own special name - demerculization. Why is that? Because in Latin mercury is called Mercury, after one of the ancient Roman gods.

To successfully combat mercury from a damaged thermometer at home, you will need:

• Medical pear
• Hermetically sealed jar
• Potassium permangantsovka
• Wet wipes, or adhesive tape, or tape

It would be nice to have all this in advance home medicine cabinet, in case it crashed mercury thermometer Houses.

1. Open the window, but avoid drafts. This will help prevent mercury vapor from concentrating in the room. And you, accordingly, should not inhale them. Place a rag moistened with a solution of potassium permanganate at the entrance to the room. This way we prevent the spread of mercury on shoes.
2. Clear the contaminated area of ​​people, remove children, and remove pets. Let them walk on a wet rag. Wipe the animals' paws. You can't wash your pet's paws in the bathroom now. You risk introducing mercury into the sewer.
3. Close the door to the affected room tightly.
4. Carefully collect the broken pieces of the thermometer into the prepared jar. Place the collected mercury balls there. A medical bulb will help in “catching” them; you can also use adhesive plaster, wet wipes, tape - any sticky surface. The mercury balls stick well.

Mercury should be collected from corners and walls towards the center of the room.

Keep in mind that cleaning up the consequences of a broken thermometer at home may take several hours.

Be sure to take a break every quarter of an hour! Get out into the fresh air and drink as much water as possible.

1. Congratulations, you have finally collected all the visible mercury! Now you need to chemically clean the room. Wash the walls and floor with any chlorine-containing products, and after an hour, treat all surfaces again with a soap solution. Repeat the procedure every 5-6 hours for at least another 3 days.

Instead of industrial detergents you can use a 0.2% solution of potassium permanganate. This is approximately 20 g of powder per bucket of water. For a soap solution, it is enough to dilute liquid soap in water or dissolve household shavings.

1. Ventilate the “affected” room for another week.

Remember the short instructions

If a thermometer with mercury breaks in the house, this is a serious emergency. In an ideal world, people who find themselves in the described situation call the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Specialists come from there and carry out all the required activities, incl. and demerculization of mercury if a mercury thermometer breaks.

IN real life each of us can be left alone with the mercury problem in the apartment. Please note that simply throwing this substance into the trash is unacceptable. Yes, when exposed to oxidizing agents (such as oxygen in the air), mercury loses its deadly properties. But for this to happen, time must pass, during which the fumes can cause irreparable harm.

Mercury in a hermetically sealed jar

If you were unable to call the Ministry of Emergency Situations for help and hand over to them collected mercury, leave it in an airtight container and take it or take it to a landfill, away from residential areas, bodies of water and crowded places.

You will also have to part with everything that came into contact with mercury: gloves, clothing, a medical bulb, a rag that you placed before entering the room - all this must be disposed of.

If a thermometer with mercury breaks on the carpet in your apartment, after collecting the mercury, carefully (but not for long, a minute or two) vacuum it, and dispose of the garbage bag along with the contents. Then you need to air the carpet for five days to a week.

Don't forget about yourself

Take some pills activated carbon, wash your hands thoroughly, brush your teeth, drink as much water as possible. And of course, watch for symptoms of mercury poisoning. Remember - prompt request medical care will protect you from global problems with health!

Well, now you know what to do if a mercury thermometer suddenly breaks in your apartment. And you can even impress your friends with the word “demerculization.” But we still really want you not to have to put this knowledge into practice. Take care of yourself!

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Tell VK

When my child broke a mercury thermometer, I realized that I didn’t know what to do or how to do the right thing. Great, I know that this metal in the air is poison, but how to properly collect mercury balls has already been completely forgotten since Life Safety lessons.

And I think that every family should know correct actions from the moment of protecting yourself from poisoning to disposal.

Mercury is a first class hazardous toxin, and the most great harm it happens when you inhale the vapors!

It evaporates at temperatures above 18 degrees.

Under no circumstances should the balls be collected with a broom or vacuum cleaner. When collected with a broom, the mercury begins to be broken into smaller pieces by the hard bristles; as a result, evaporation occurs faster and it is very difficult to remove the smallest particles. The dangerous metal is rubbed into the carpet and lodged in the bristles.

When collected with a vacuum cleaner, it will begin to actively evaporate, i.e. you suck it up with a vacuum cleaner, it will begin to be thrown out through the return filtration system and enter the air in tiny particles. Moreover, the vacuum cleaner heats up during operation, thereby heating up the mercury. You can create a toxic mixture in the air.

You need to start collecting balls with simple steps.

The first step is to remove children and other adults from the room. You can open the window, but on condition that there is no draft!

The second step is to protect ourselves from vapor poisoning. We put plastic bags on shoes and socks. Wear rubber household gloves on your hands.

You need to protect your respiratory organs: take gauze and a disposable mask. We roll the gauze into several layers and put it into the mask. And this bandage must be wet. If there is nothing, then wet it and tie it around respiratory tract a towel or diaper. This way you will be safer from toxins.

The third step is to prevent the mercury from spreading throughout the room. Try to fence the balls damp cloth, folded into a bundle so that they do not spread throughout the apartment.

Fourth step, collect the balls. You can do this with tape, a medical plaster, as a last resort, two sheets of paper. You can also use a rubber bulb or syringe.

We put the stuck balls together with the tape into a jar of water (solution) and seal it tightly.

It is better to use a chlorine-containing solution or a soda solution, they are neutralizing.

Solution recipe: 1 liter boiled water, 40 g laundry soap, 50 g soda.

You need to disinfect the surface after you have collected all the balls. To do this, treat the area where the mercury comes into contact with the floor with a chlorine-containing solution. Simply wet the cloth and place it on the floor in the right place. We hold for an hour. After this, we treat the area with soapy water and do a wet cleaning of the room.

According to the law, the collected metal must be handed over to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. It is advisable to also hand in the clothes you wore during cleaning, gloves and everything you were wearing.

Under no circumstances should we throw it into the water or sewer, bury it in the ground, or put it in the refrigerator!

If mercury gets on the carpet, it is advisable to remove it from the apartment. After collection, the carpet must be ventilated for up to 3 months.

If you have small children, keep this reminder.

What are the possible health consequences?

Naturally, if the room temperature is higher, the mercury will evaporate faster. Therefore, if the balls have rolled under the battery, you need to start collecting it from there first.

Two grams contained in a thermometer are enough to poison 6,000 cubic meters of air.

Signs of mercury poisoning:

1. Nausea,
2. headache,
3. cramps,
4. increased fatigue,
5. metallic taste in the mouth,
6. irritability,
7. irregular twitching of the eyelids and fingers.

At strong signs A doctor's consultation is required!

Who hasn’t encountered such a situation: they were taking their temperature, there was an awkward movement and the mercury thermometer slipped out of their hands and broke. What to do? Now they are trying to replace mercury thermometers with electronic ones. But still, many have preserved them and continue to use them.

The situation is unpleasant, and to some extent dangerous. You probably know about harmful influence mercury vapor on the body and that they can be poisoned. But if you remove the remaining mercury from the room in a timely manner, the possibility of poisoning with mercury vapor will be minimal, if not disappear altogether. If the consequences of the “disaster” were completely and promptly removed, then this situation can be forgotten. For information: in one medical thermometer contains no more than 1 gram of mercury (imported ones contain up to 2 grams). And this is not the volume that can cause acute poisoning mercury vapor.

But nevertheless, poisoning can occur if you did not notice the remaining mercury or did not remove it at all, if the room is warm and the room is not ventilated. Mercury is a metal, a thiol poison. Belongs to hazard class 1. IN normal conditions is a liquid with an evaporation temperature of +18º C. Mercury vapor is especially dangerous.

Mercury vapor easily spreads in indoor air over considerable distances and easily passes through porous bodies. Pure mercury is easily crushed; 5 grams of mercury with a ball diameter of 0.1 mm gives a surface of 1.5 m 2. The concentration of mercury vapor depends on air temperature, distance from the evaporating surface, area of ​​evaporation, air mobility, and purity of mercury.

The effect on the body is local irritant (upon contact with skin), enterotoxic (upon consumption of contaminated food), neurotoxic (upon inhalation of vapors). Mercury can enter the human body by inhaling vapors through the lungs, through food into the gastrointestinal tract, or through contact with skin. When vapors are inhaled, more than 75% of the mercury is absorbed. IN gastrointestinal tract metallic mercury is not absorbed. 2-5% is absorbed through intact skin. Mercury is excreted through the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract.

What are the dangers of mercury?

If the thermometer breaks, the danger will be in the following cases:

• mercury balls spill over the floor and roll under the baseboards and into the cracks;
• fall on upholstered furniture, carpet, soft children's toys, clothes, and can remain there for a long time;
• in case of untimely demercurization with shoes or on the paws of animals, mercury spreads further throughout the apartment.

Most dangerous path entry of mercury vapor into the body, when not completely uncollected mercury remains on objects or in floor cracks. Further inhalation of mercury vapor occurs. Mercury has the ability to accumulate in the kidneys, heart, and brain. Various microelements and oxygen contained in the blood contribute to the oxidation and formation of mercury salts. They cause a state of acute or chronic intoxication.

Acute mercury vapor poisoning - symptoms

At acute intoxication (poisoning) victims complain of gastrointestinal upset -intestinal tract(nausea, vomiting, loose stool), falls arterial pressure, pulse is rare, thread-like, fainting is possible.

Symptoms of respiratory tract damage: tracheobronchitis, runny nose; after a few hours, severe toxic pneumonia and toxic pulmonary edema may develop. At the same time, symptoms of damage to the digestive organs (frequent loose stools) and central nervous system(drowsiness, periods of excitement). On the 3-4th day, acute renal failure develops.

Acute poisoning can occur at 0.13 - 0.80 mg/m3. Intoxication with fatal develops when inhaling 2.5 g of mercury vapor.

According to GN 2.1.6.1338-03 “Maximum permissible concentrations (MPC) of pollutants in the atmospheric air of populated areas” and SanPiN 2.1.2.1002-00 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for residential buildings and premises”, the maximum permissible concentration of mercury vapor must exceed 0.0003 mg /m3.

Chronic mercury vapor poisoning

At chronic poisoning clinical picture is not so pronounced and develops gradually. A characteristic feature is a metallic taste in the mouth, looseness and bleeding of the gums, profuse salivation. The victims are easily excitable, irritable, they have weakened memory, decreased physical and mental performance. They get tired quickly, sleep poorly, and are apathetic.

The likelihood of such poisoning exists in all rooms where mercury is in contact with air. Particularly dangerous are the smallest drops of spilled mercury that have clogged up under baseboards, linoleum, in floor crevices, in the pile of carpets and upholstery.

If you have emergency with a mercury spill and after some time you notice the above symptoms, then you need to urgently contact the nearest medical institution. There is no point in waiting too long to get medical help.

Demercurization

Demercurization refers to a set of measures to remove mercury from premises using various methods.

• Mechanical (sorption, collection of rolled mercury balls, wet mechanical cleaning, removal of contaminated structures, etc.);
• Chemical (conversion of mercury to bound state to reduce the evaporation rate).

If the thermometer breaks, the first thing you need to do is not to panic. And if you follow the rules correctly, the consequences of the spill will be minimized. Then proceed as follows.

1. Take children and animals out of the room where the thermometer crashed.
2. Put a headscarf or a disposable medical cap on your head, rubber gloves on your hands, shoe covers on your feet, or you can use plastic bags instead, and be sure to wear a respirator or just a damp cloth. gauze bandage on your face to protect your respiratory system.
3. Open all vents or windows for the entire period of demercurization (4 hours) and after it for 30 minutes.
4. Remove the curtains from the windows, remove the bedspreads, Stuffed Toys. They need to be washed in a hot soapy solution or taken out into the open air for several days.
5. Prepare a container where you will collect the remaining spilled mercury; it is advisable to fill it with water half the volume of the container.
6. When carrying out demercurization, remove gold jewelry. Mercury vapor and mercury itself react with gold.

Never use a broom or vacuum cleaner to remove spilled mercury. If you use them, the remaining mercury will subsequently disperse throughout the apartment.

First, we collect the remains of the broken thermometer and large drops of mercury in a container of water using a rubber enema, disposable syringe, pipette or tape. Please pay Special attention that droplets can roll into cracks and under baseboards. Place all this in a container with water and close it tightly with a lid.

Floor cleaning

1. The next step will be washing the floor with a hot (70-80 o C) soap-soda solution (40 grams of soap or soap per 10 liters of water). washing powder and 50 grams of soda ash). Moisten the surfaces generously with the solution at the rate of 0.4 - 1.0 liters per 1 square meter. meter of floor area. We carefully apply it with a rag or brushes over the entire surface, paying special attention to the cracks. Then thoroughly rub the solution with a rag and clean water, trying to prevent flush water from getting under the underground space and flooring.
2. Then we wash the floors with a 0.2% solution of potassium permanganate (1 gram of KMnO4 per 1 liter of water), leave for 4 hours.
3. After this time, we thoroughly wash the walls, windows, window sills, and doors. Lastly, wash the floor again with a hot soap-soda solution and ventilate the room.

The final stage

At the end of the cleaning, you need to take off your robe, mask, cap, gloves and shoe covers and put everything in a plastic bag. There we also put the broken thermometer with the remains of mercury and the rags that were used to clean the room. According to the rules, we must hand over all this to the appropriate organization that processes such waste. But not every city or town has such organizations. And because of one thermometer, hardly anyone will even go to the neighboring city to hand over this waste for recycling.

This waste cannot be thrown into a container or garbage chute, and it cannot be buried either. Therefore, it is best to call the medical service and hand over this hazardous waste to them. They are obliged to accept them.

In conclusion, watch the video of the program “Live Healthy!” with Elena Malysheva, where you can clearly tell what to do if a mercury thermometer breaks.

Be careful when using a mercury thermometer. If possible, replace it with an electronic one, it will be safer for everyone.

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Be healthy! Taisiya Filippova was with you.