What to do if a child breaks a thermometer or swallows mercury. What happens if mercury gets on your skin? What to do if you take mercury with your hands

Many of us use a regular mercury thermometer to measure body temperature. Its advantages are the most accurate measurement readings and inexpensive cost. The disadvantage is the mercury inside the device, which can be dangerous to humans.

Why are mercury balls dangerous?

In everyday life, we observe mercury as a metal in liquid form. It poses a great danger to human health; mercury is capable of evaporation, and its vapor can poison a person.

Renders negative impact on the body, diseases of the skin, kidneys, and eyes occur. This substance causes great harm to expectant mothers and babies. Mercury accumulates in the body, while a person does not feel anything special, and its effects appear after a few hours. Migraines and weakness will begin.

If the thermometer is damaged, 2 grams of mercury are released from it, which can spread its negative impact over an area of ​​six thousand cubic meters of air. Small balls of mercury can roll under the baseboard and stick to slippers. A person who inhales poisoned air begins to suffer from mercury intoxication. Red rashes appear in the form of burns. With prolonged exposure to mercury on the body, it can lead to madness.

First actions

Before you begin collecting mercury, you must complete the following activities:

1. Remove all people and animals in the room, as this metal is dangerous for them too. This is necessary to avoid contact with mercury;
2. Open the window immediately and entrance doors lock up. It is important to pay attention to ensure that there is no draft;
3. If you clean the room yourself, without the Ministry of Emergency Situations, it is recommended in this case to wear a damp gauze bandage;
4. Go outside more often, at least twice every half hour. You should wear gloves on your hands and bags on your feet so as not to spread dangerous metal throughout the room;
5. You should immediately begin collecting all glass fragments from the thermometer;
6. Next, you need to look for balls in cracks on the floor, next to furniture, under the baseboard. They are small and have a silver-gray tint.

How should you collect mercury?

First, take a glass container or jar with a tight-fitting lid. Fill it with water. Place the broken thermometer in a bag. It is not recommended to collect the balls with a broom, especially with a vacuum cleaner; after cleaning you will have to throw it away. Tools:

• aspirator, needle, knitting needle;
• adhesive plaster, good density paper, cotton balls;
• table lamp, bright lantern;
• manganese, iodine.

Clothes worn by a person should be synthetic, since they absorb less mercury fumes.

Stages of assembling mercury metal

First stage.

First, we inspect the room where the event occurred, all the things, shelves, sofas, table, chairs. Use a flashlight while working, the balls are small and in normal lighting it is impossible to see them. Anything that has been touched by metal is collected and taken away. Mark the places where small balls accumulate with a pencil on the floor so as not to step on them in the future. Collect the larger particles first. To do this, take paper and roll them onto it with a needle or knitting needle. When collecting small balls, take the patch and apply it to the mercury, dispose of the patch in a glass mold. If the balls get into the holes in the floor, then take a long knitting needle and wrap a cotton ball dipped in potassium permanganate around the end. After collection, also dispose of the cotton ball as described above. The floor skirting is torn off and treated there with mercury collection methods.

Collected mercury is not thrown away or stored long time, and are handed over to the Ministry of Emergency Situations department. The form with the collected metal is immediately taken out of the apartment.

Second stage.

Processing chemicals. In the case when you are completely sure that all the drops have been collected and all the affected items have been removed, proceed to the disinfection stage. Prepare a manganese solution. You need to take one liter of running water and pour 2 grams of potassium permanganate into it. Then treat the affected areas using a spray bottle or any brush. Carry out the procedure with gloves that do not get wet. Leave the solution on the areas for up to 8 hours, moisten them more often after drying. After this time, treat the surfaces and crevices in the floor with a soap-soda solution and carry out a thorough wet cleaning of the room. In the next 7 days, treat the room in this way, only reduce the time from 8 hours to 1 hour. Do preventive measures Ventilate and clean the room as often as possible.

Mercury gets on your skin

If metal comes into contact with human skin, it is necessary to wash it well with soap. Treat the affected skin with lime solution. Do this periodically. It is possible that this treatment will cause a burn. This measure is necessary to prevent mercury from entering the body. You can collect the drops using a plaster or tape. If vomiting, nausea and diarrhea nevertheless appear, immediately go to a specialist, this is a signal that mercury has penetrated through the skin.

The incident happened in the kitchen

In this case, all products that were in accessible places for metal to enter are thrown away. All kitchen items are thoroughly washed; a mercury film invisible to the eye may have formed on them. All open containers with salt, cereals, and seasonings should be disposed of. Hanging towels, sponges, napkins, tablecloths should be disposed of; it is forbidden to wash them, as under the influence warm water mercury evaporation occurs.

The incident happened on the carpet

The covering is rolled up, a large bag or cellophane bag is put on it and immediately taken out into the yard. Lay a film on the ground and hang the carpet on a rope above the film so that the mercury spills out there. Use sharp movements to knock the balls out of the carpet. Collect mercury using the methods described above. Take the carpet outside to air every week.

Protective measures

A person who has been clearing a room of mercury for a long time should brush his teeth as soon as possible and wash his hands thoroughly with soap. Clothes that have been cleaned are hung outside and aired for several months, but it is best to get rid of them forever. Rinse your mouth with manganese solution and take 10 tablets activated carbon. Drink plenty of fluids.

Who to contact in emergency situations

It is better to entrust the collection of mercury to professional specialists. They go to the scene of the incident with the necessary equipment.

They work in a room with instruments, completely clear the space of mercury vapor, and analyze the air for mercury vapor content.

It is necessary to take precautions when handling a mercury thermometer to protect yourself and others from infection. Do not give it to your child; it is better to store the thermometer in a special flask in a well-protected place. It is forbidden to fall asleep with a thermometer.

Today there is a huge selection of electronic temperature measuring instruments. They are safer, use them and take care of your health.

Photo: Katerina Pustynnikova

A Chelyabinsk woman broke a mercury thermometer. Fearing poisoning, the woman hastily collected the soft balls with a rag and began calling authorities to order the measurement of mercury vapor and the demercurization procedure (mercury removal). It was not so easy to reach specialists...

It was the first time I broke a thermometer,” said Chelyabinsk resident Alena Gorbunova. “I heard that mercury vapor is very dangerous, so I hurried to remove everything.” But I didn’t know that the rag had to be wetted with water before doing this, so it ended up smearing mercury all over the room. I have a small child. It became scary - what if we get poisoned? I called a bunch of phone numbers of the city rescue service and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Of course, they told me how to collect this muck and advised me to wash the floor and ventilate the apartment. They said that nothing bad would happen because of one thermometer. But I didn’t risk the health of my child and decided to call the demercurization service.

The specialists were in no hurry to visit the young mother to measure mercury vapor.

I understand that the Ministry of Emergency Situations cannot go to every broken thermometer, but when the situation is not entirely ordinary, is this really not their responsibility? - the young mother was indignant. - In general, I was redirected to Rospotrebnadzor. On the tenth attempt I got through to the right specialist. I paid 870 rubles for the arrival of an employee who could measure mercury vapor and determine whether it was dangerous to be in the apartment. And suddenly it turned out that the specialists would not arrive immediately, but within a month!

The family did not wait, but simply moved to another apartment.

I understand that it is unlikely to be obtained acute poisoning from such an amount of mercury, but chronic - quite, - explained Alena Gorbunova. - We didn’t take risks.

There is nothing unusual in the fact that the employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the city rescue service did not rush to visit the young mother at the first call about a broken thermometer.

“We specialize in larger incidents involving chemically hazardous substances,” explained Mikhail Yurin, an employee of the press service of the EMERCOM of the region. - The maximum we can help in this case is to advise.

You can remove the consequences of a dropped thermometer yourself, but a dispatcher of the Chelyabinsk City Rescue Service is ready to advise you in detail on how to do this at any time of the day by calling 051 and (351) 263–16–16.

Under no circumstances should you touch mercury with your hands! - noted Sergei Kirpichnikov, deputy director of the MKU Chelyabinsk City Rescue Service. - Work only with rubber gloves. You can collect mercury balls with any convenient object that you don’t mind throwing away - a sheet of paper, a scoop or a spoon. And under no circumstances use a vacuum cleaner.

Then put the silver liquid into a jar of water and close the lid tightly. Wash the area where the mercury was spilled with a pink solution of potassium permanganate. If you don’t have it at home, dilute bleach, dishwashing liquid or floor cleaner in water. Then take the mercury to the Shield company.

The rags that were used to wash the floor can be thrown into an ordinary trash container - they are not dangerous,” continues Sergei Kirpichnikov. - For elderly people who are not able to do all this on their own, our specialists are ready to help. If you doubt whether you are doing everything right, call: we will tell you, we will help. The main thing is not to panic.

Photo: Dmitry Gladyshev (infographics)

Mercury can be submitted for recycling in Chelyabinsk only in one place: on Mekhanicheskaya Street, 65, phone: (351) 773–06–06. It is received from 8:15 to 15:00 from Monday to Thursday and from 8:15 to 13:45 on Friday.

If you bring it, ask the chemical laboratory, they will tell you where to go,” explained the leading chemical engineer of the Center civil defense and protection of the population of the Chelyabinsk region (former FSUE “Shield”) Vladimir. - It is not necessary to bring documents with you. We accept free of charge from individuals, as well as municipal and state enterprises and institutions. A regular medical thermometer contains 1.5–2 grams of mercury. If you assemble them correctly, there will be no harm from a broken thermometer.

Really, broken home The thermometer is dangerous, especially for children - a lower concentration is enough for them to be poisoned than for adults,” commented Svetlana Luchinina, deputy chief physician of Rospotrebnadzor of the Chelyabinsk Region. - When mercury vapor evaporates, it enters the respiratory system. In children, even with a small volume, they can negatively affect the central nervous system(CNS). If there is a lot of mercury, then it is dangerous for adults. Small mercury balls can roll under the baseboard, get into the cracks under the linoleum, and gradually evaporate from there. But if you immediately collect the mercury in a jar of water and generously treat the floor with a solution of manganese, this will be enough to avoid poisoning. Potassium permanganate neutralizes mercury well. And in this case, there is no need to call the demercurization service.

At room temperature, mercury releases toxic fumes that enter the body through the respiratory tract.

If no measures are taken after the thermometer breaks, the liquid metal will poison the air and gradually accumulate in the body. The problem is aggravated by the fact that mercury crumbles into small drops that are easy to miss in floor crevices, carpet pile, and behind baseboards.

Symptoms of mercury poisoning may not be noticeable for a long time.

Health problems may appear within a couple of months after direct contact with mercury. Main symptoms: weakness, general malaise, loss of appetite, metallic taste in the mouth, headaches and sore throat, increased salivation, nausea and vomiting. As you can see, they can easily be attributed to stress, fatigue from work, or triviality.

But if mercury continues to accumulate, more serious problems: trembling of fingers, eyelids, then arms and legs, predisposition to mental illness, tuberculosis, atherosclerotic phenomena, damage to the liver and gallbladder, hypertension.

How to collect mercury

If a thermometer breaks, first of all, take children and animals out of the room and close the door so that mercury vapor does not escape into neighboring rooms. To prevent anyone from transferring droplets of mercury on their shoes, lay a rag soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate before entering.

Potassium permanganate solution

Add 2 grams of potassium permanganate to 1 liter of water and mix.

If it's cold outside, open the window. This will help slow down evaporation. One thing: under no circumstances should you allow a draft, which could cause mercury to scatter throughout the room.

Put shoe covers or plastic bags on your feet and rubber gloves on your hands. Respiratory tract also needs protection. For example, a disposable mask with gauze soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate.

Take a glass jar with a lid (or any other sealed container), pour water or a solution of potassium permanganate into it and fold the fragments of the thermometer.

Take two sheets of paper and cotton wool soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate. Start collecting drops of mercury from the corners of the room towards the center. Using a cotton swab, push the drops onto the paper and whisk them into the jar. Instead of cotton wool, you can use regular tape: stick it on the floor where there is mercury and tear it off.

To collect all the mercury without any residue and get to the smallest drops in the cracks, use a syringe, a medical bulb with a fine tip, or a paint brush.

Close the jar of mercury tightly with a lid and place it in a cool place, preferably on the balcony. Do not throw it down the garbage disposal or pour its contents into the toilet.

How to treat a room and protect yourself

To ensure that not a trace of mercury remains in the room, treat the area where it was spilled. First - a solution of potassium permanganate: 20 grams of potassium permanganate per 10 liters of water. Apply it with a rag or using a spray bottle. After an hour, wipe the same area with soap and soda solution.

You will have to treat with potassium permanganate and soap-soda solution 2-3 times a day for several days.

Soap and soda solution

Grate a bar of soap and pour hot water and stir until the soap shavings are completely dissolved. Instead of regular soap You can use liquid. Pour the mixture with 10 liters of water. Add 100 grams baking soda. Stir.

Since you yourself have been in an unsafe room for a long time, you need to do the following:

1. Wash gloves and shoes with potassium permanganate and soap-soda solution.
2. Rinse your mouth with a very weak solution of potassium permanganate.
3. Brush your teeth thoroughly.
4. Take 2-3 tablets of activated carbon.
5. Drink more fluids (tea, juice, coffee).

What not to do

1. Do not sweep mercury with a broom. Hard rods will only grind drops of mercury into fine dust and spread throughout the room.
2. Do not vacuum up mercury. During blowing, warm air causes mercury to evaporate even more intensely. In addition, its particles will remain on the engine parts and will spread throughout the apartment during cleaning.
3. Do not throw the thermometer down the garbage disposal. Mercury will pollute the air throughout the house.
4. Do not flush mercury down the toilet. It will settle in the sewer pipes, and it will be very difficult to remove it from there.
5. Clothing that has been exposed to mercury should be thrown away. When washing, small metal particles will settle in.
6. There is no need to rinse rags and other available materials in the sink. About sewer pipes we already talked. Just collect everything in a thick plastic bag and tie it tightly. You can't take it to the trash.

Where to return a broken thermometer

Neither the broken thermometer itself, nor the items with which you collected mercury, can be simply thrown into the trash. They need to be sent to a facility that can recycle mercury.

Call the Ministry of Emergency Situations at 112 and report that your thermometer has broken. They will write down your address, tell you what needs to be done, or come to your home if you are not sure that you were able to completely clean the premises. It's free.

True, EMERCOM employees are often busy with other matters and are not always able to promptly help with a broken thermometer. In this case, you can call a paid demercurization service in your city.

If you managed to clean up the mercury without outside help, call the nearest sanitary and epidemiological station. Experts will tell you the address where you can donate mercury.

What happens if mercury gets on your skin?

Thermometers for measuring temperature, energy-saving fluorescent lamps - many of them contain mercury. When an element is broken, this toxic substance scatters around and can get not only on things, clothes, but also on the human body. What happens if mercury gets on the skin and how to eliminate this small accident without consequences for health?

Mercury gets on your skin

It is the mercury vapor that is formed during its evaporation that is poisonous. As a physical substance, the balls themselves do not pose much harm, even if they have been in contact with the skin for some time. However, this does not mean that mercury should be handled with bare hands. It is better to carry out liquidation work wearing rubber gloves, or in extreme cases, wrap your hands in a plastic bag to avoid direct contact, since an allergic reaction is possible.

Contact of mercury on the skin can cause allergies. Characteristic signs– redness, itching, possible tingling. If these symptoms appear, contact the clinic.

However, in most cases, if you cleanse the skin in time, allergies do not occur and burns do not occur. All you need to do is wash off mercury from the body with a weak solution of potassium permanganate or at least soap. To completely remove all particles of the substance, wipe the area with a cotton pad, again soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate. Next, observe: if no reaction appears on the skin within 24 hours, it means there is no allergy and you can move on with your life, trying to be more careful in the future when handling items containing mercury.

For the next 3-6 days, drink at least 1.8 liters of water per day to help your body flush out toxins. Let us remind you that poisoning occurs only with prolonged inhalation of mercury vapor! The substance is removed from the body slowly, but in general, if the dose is small (and this is most often the case), this does not affect health in any way.

How to collect mercury from the floor and clothes

Once on the skin, the substance probably spilled onto the floor or other surfaces; perhaps mercury balls got stuck in the fibers of clothing.

1. If it's hot at home, open the windows so that the temperature in the room drops to 16-18 degrees. Remember that the higher the temperature, the faster evaporation occurs. Ventilate the room for at least 2 hours.
2. Collect visible to the eye balls using a soft brush or piece of paper. Mercury balls stick well to copper wire or zinc plate. If fragments of the substance have rolled into the cracks, sprinkle them with sand and sweep them out with a brush.
3. Note them on a piece of paper and then put them in a jar with cold water. Screw the container and remove it from the house. Call the Ministry of Emergency Situations and ask where in your city you can send toxic waste.
4. You cannot collect mercury with a vacuum cleaner, as the vapor will instantly spread throughout the room.
5. Take the carpet contaminated with mercury outside, pat it, and then clean it with a brush.
6. Clothing or bedding that has been exposed to mercury must be placed in a plastic bag and shaken outside, away from playgrounds. After thoroughly shaking and knocking out the items, wash them as usual.

More information on how to collect mercury after a damaged thermometer or lamp

Mercury thermometers and lamps most often break in the most inappropriate places - near carpets, on the bed, in the kitchen, etc. The danger of mercury is that it releases harmful fumes for a long time. The human factor is always present; sometimes it is impossible to remove absolutely all particles, especially in hard-to-reach places. In such cases, it is recommended to call the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Service workers will test the premises with a gas analyzer for the presence of a toxic background, and at the same time they will take away your can of hazardous waste. If necessary, they will treat the premises.

Don't be afraid of what will happen if mercury gets on your skin. We remind you that the main danger is the evaporation of the substance; the balls themselves do not pose a big threat. Rinse your skin and don't worry.