What to do if your thermometer breaks? What to do if a child breaks or bites through a thermometer, cuts himself with glass and swallows mercury? What happens if you touch mercury with your hands.
Many people still have it in their medicine cabinet. mercury thermometer. If it breaks or a child bites off the tip, you need to know exactly what to do. In such a situation, it is easy to panic and make mistakes, so we advise you to familiarize yourself with the procedure in advance in order to properly dispose of mercury and help your child if he has bitten off the thermometer.
Why is mercury from a broken thermometer dangerous?
In an open environment, mercury breaks up into small moving balls, which quickly roll into corners and crevices. These balls begin to evaporate already at a temperature of 18C, poisoning the air.
Basically, mercury vapor is inhaled through the lungs, after which it settles on the internal organs. Mercury vapor seriously harms health even when not high concentration.
It is believed that ingested mercury is not as dangerous as fumes and is easily excreted through the gastrointestinal tract. However, if a child bit through the thermometer and swallowed mercury, sharp glass shards could also enter the body.
Symptoms of mercury vapor poisoning
First of all, mercury vapor affects the central nervous system, resulting in the following symptoms:
- weakness, lethargy;
- memory impairment;
- mood swings, irritability;
- headaches and dizziness.
The first signs of mercury poisoning: headache, nausea, chills and shortness of breath Then the temperature rises, the gums may become inflamed, tremors appear and excessive sweating. Then the genitourinary and digestive systems: difficulty urinating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. If you ignore these symptoms and do not consult a doctor, death is possible.
What should parents do if their child breaks a mercury thermometer?
Induce vomiting in the child, but only if he has not bitten off the thermometer or swallowed fragments: during vomiting, the glass can cut the walls of the esophagus. If your child cuts his finger on glass, treat the wounds with an antiseptic and apply a sterile bandage. After the bleeding stops, the bandage can be removed and special healing ointments can be used: Bepanten, Rescuer, Feniran, etc.
The thermometer and mercury must be disposed of. It is best to call the sanitary service, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other organizations - they will carry out the disposal themselves or tell you what to do.
Before collecting mercury, take care of your own safety:
- Change into closed-toed synthetic clothing. Remember that it will have to be thrown away after disposal.
- Put shoe covers on your feet and rubber gloves on your hands.
- Protect your face with a damp gauze mask.
Indoors, open the windows, but avoid drafts. Carefully place the thermometer fragments into a jar of water. Using cotton wool, roll large balls onto a sheet of paper, and collect small ones with tape. Carefully inspect the room. Mercury can be collected from difficult places with a bulb or syringe. Place the mercury and all used tools in a jar of water and close it tightly, and put large items (clothing, gloves) in a bag. Hand over the jar and package to special services or the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Wash surfaces with soap and soda or manganese solution. For the next 7 days, try not to stay in the room, ventilate it regularly.
What can't you do?
The following must not be done:
- the thermometer and all contacting materials cannot be disposed of in the usual way and washed down the drain;
- mercury cannot be collected with a rag, broom or vacuum cleaner;
- It is not enough to simply wash the contacted clothing - hand it over to the Ministry of Emergency Situations;
- Do not allow a draft in the room until all the mercury has been collected.
Many children hide their “crimes” for fear of punishment from their parents. If a child breaks a thermometer or accidentally bites through the tip, he can secretly throw the mercury into the toilet or trash. Be sure to tell your child why a mercury thermometer is dangerous and promise to tell you if he breaks it.
How dangerous is the situation when a child breaks a thermometer? Is it necessary to “evacuate” the entire apartment as a result, or is it enough to just do a wet cleaning? What is the impact on children's body what do mercury vapors do? What to do if a child swallows mercury? Similar situations occur from time to time in different families, and it is useful for all parents to know how to deal with such cases.
A broken thermometer will not cause serious problems after proper disposal of spilled mercury.
Let’s say right away: there is not that much mercury in the thermometer itself, so you shouldn’t worry about poisoning the whole family with its vapors. A thermometer broken by children, which you usually use to measure body temperature, is not a reason to panic - just treat this situation with increased attention. Serious danger in such a case no, but it can cause some harm to health.
We know from school that mercury is extremely poisonous. Her couples, getting into respiratory tract, can either simply make you feel a little worse or seriously disrupt your work internal organs- depending on the dose received. The most serious consequence is that a person will have to treat diseased internal organs for a long time.
Mercury begins to evaporate when the room temperature exceeds 18°. Vapors enter the body not only during breathing, they can seep through the surface of our skin, however, in the case of very high concentrations in the air.
Mercury vapor affects:
- mucous membrane of the nose and throat;
- gums;
- central nervous system.
Since a child’s body is weaker than an adult, it is, of course, more dangerous for him to be in a room with mercury vapor.
Mercury vapor in high concentrations affects the mucous membranes and can cause problems with the central nervous system.
What to do if a thermometer is broken in the house
A thermometer, of course, is not a toy, and you shouldn’t give it to children again, but anything can happen. If your child has broken a thermometer, you need to quickly:
- take the baby out of the room;
- remove the fragments of the broken device;
- collect and dispose of mercury balls.
Keep in mind that mercury balls are very mobile and have the ability to seep into any cracks in the floor. Once stuck there, the mercury will begin to evaporate, posing a threat to the health of children specifically - after all, children are closer to the floor than we are. Mercury balls small size, so collecting them is quite difficult, and with poor lighting, sometimes you can’t see small drops.
Where to put the thermometer and mercury
The easiest way is to call the Ministry of Emergency Situations employees by calling them by phone and explaining the situation, especially in the event confusion and lack of necessary tools at hand. However, most likely, the employees will not come to you, but will simply give a brief consultation over the phone, explaining what to do.
Disposal requirements
Self-disposal is a step-by-step set of actions. The following tools will help you clean up:
- adhesive tape, plaster, electrical tape;
- flashlight - illuminate hard-to-reach areas;
- two sheets of thick paper (you cannot use a broom or vacuum cleaner);
- cotton wool;
- syringe or medical bulb.
Do not collect spilled mercury with a vacuum cleaner. Firstly, it will evaporate even faster, and secondly, it will not be possible to clean the vacuum cleaner; it will be easier to destroy it.
Please note that collecting mercury balls with a broom is extremely inconvenient: you will simply be chasing them around the floor. Pieces of paper are much more reliable in this case.
It is better to dispose of spilled mercury using a rubber bulb or a medical syringe.
You will also have to cook in glass jars:
- soap and soda solution for cleaning the floor;
- high concentration manganese solution;
- ordinary water, put fragments of a thermometer and mercury in it.
We do the cleaning
- Close the doors, removing both children and adults from the room.
- Put rubber slippers (preferably shoe covers) on your feet, a damp cloth mask on your face, and thick gloves on your hands.
- Soak a rag in a manganese solution and lay it at the entrance, at the same time tightly plugging the gap under the doors with it.
- Open the windows, so the mercury vapor will disappear faster.
- Collect the broken thermometer fragments in a jar of water. Be careful so that the remaining mercury in the flask does not spill out.
- Using two sheets of paper, collect the balls of mercury into a single puddle, then distill it onto a sheet of paper and place it in a jar of water to the “remains” of the thermometer.
- Using adhesive tape, collect the remaining small balls, also placing them in a jar.
- Mercury that has flowed into the cracks of the parquet and under the baseboard is removed using a bulb (syringe). Use a flashlight to illuminate the balls; in the light the balls will sparkle with a metallic color.
- Next, close the jar with a tight lid and begin to wash the floor - first with manganese, and then with a soap solution.
During cleaning, it is necessary to take measures to protect the respiratory system and skin.
After cleaning up, put the slippers, gloves, and bandage in one bag along with the jar where the collected fragments and mercury are stored. Now it is advisable to find out where to put the waste: such dangerous things are not thrown away with ordinary garbage. Call the Ministry of Emergency Situations and specify the disposal location.
Clothes contaminated with mercury must be disposed of; they cannot be washed. It is forbidden to wash off collected mercury into the toilet.
Mercury got on the carpet, bedspread
Quite expensive clothes or a valuable carpet, of course, should not be thrown away due to mercury contamination. They can be cleaned of mercury:
- shake out bedspreads, clothes and carpets outside;
- hang it out to dry, but not on the balcony, but in deserted places - in the country, behind the house, in the garage. They will have to weather for three months;
- then have all items dry cleaned and then are allowed to be used.
Quarantine measures
Taking care of the health of loved ones, it is better to temporarily, for about a week, make the room where the thermometer was broken uninhabited. Open the windows there and constantly ventilate, wash the floor daily with soap and water. soda solution.
It is extremely important to close the door to the room - you do not need drafts in an infected room.
If you are very concerned about the risk of vapor poisoning, simply call the laboratory service. From there they will bring special instruments and measure the level of mercury concentration in the room and near the floor.
The child bit through the thermometer and swallowed mercury
Sometimes it turns out that they didn’t keep an eye on the child and came after the incident, and it’s quite possible that the baby “snapped” useful thing, at the same time I tried the cute mercury balls that rolled out of the broken thermometer onto my tongue and even swallowed it. The situation is, of course, unpleasant, but, we repeat, not particularly critical, since the concentration of mercury in household appliances too small to pose a serious threat to the child’s body.
A child who has swallowed mercury from a thermometer should be shown to a doctor.
But it is still necessary to show the baby to a doctor. Sometimes the baby does not drop the thermometer, but, for example, bites it, chews it, and as a result scratches his tongue, lips with fragments, and often swallows a fragment, and in such a case the consequences are much more dangerous than mercury in low concentrations.
Symptoms of mercury vapor poisoning
Fearing that during your absence the child inhaled mercury, bit off the tip of the thermometer and drank the contents, keep an eye on the baby. Poisoning can be recognized by the following signs:
- the baby quickly weakens and behaves apathetically;
- drowsiness will appear, the baby will feel dizzy;
- the pulse will become rapid;
- the child often wants to go to the toilet and sweats profusely;
- his arms and legs are shaking;
- The baby becomes inattentive and memory deteriorates.
Consequences
As a result of poisoning, unpleasant consequences will soon arise, fraught with complications:
- possible development of pneumonia, hypotension;
- the functioning of the thyroid gland will go wrong;
- hypertension will occur;
- pathologies will appear in the functioning of the kidneys, liver and gall bladder;
- the risk of tuberculosis and atherosclerosis increases.
Poisoning with concentrated mercury vapor can lead to serious pathologies.
Ways to remove mercury vapor from the body
Our body is quite capable of removing the substances that have entered it. heavy metals. After all, mercury can accumulate in us not only when living in an apartment full of broken thermometers. There is also a lot of it in:
- some seafood;
- polluted air;
- poor quality drinking water;
- household chemicals;
- ointments and whitening creams.
There are several ways to help the body cleanse itself of accumulated mercury.
- Make a decoction of coriander (cilantro): 8 teaspoons of finely chopped herbs are poured into a liter of boiling water, then left for about half an hour. Drink coriander decoction, replacing regular tea, for a couple of months. Brew the decoction only in glass containers, but not in metal ones.
- Take a decoction of burdock roots. 10 grams of dried plant roots are poured with a glass of boiling water, then boiled over low heat for a quarter of an hour. The broth is filtered. You need to drink a tablespoon three times a day.
- Follow a special diet with plenty of seaweed, carrots, beets - similar the products themselves remove heavy metals or make them more inert.
Remember: the process of removing mercury from the body takes quite a long time, so be patient.
A decoction of burdock roots will help remove mercury vapor from the body.
Prevention of disaster
Young children have to take their temperature quite often. That's why It’s better to buy not an ordinary thermometer for your home, but a special safe one - infrared and electronic. The baby will no longer be able to see through the tip of this device, bite it off no matter how hard he tries, and it is much more convenient to use such a device - the temperature values are clearly visible on the electronic display.
Using a mercury thermometer the old fashioned way, follow the rules:
- Do not give the device to small children.
- Store the device in a special case and out of the reach of children.
- When measuring your baby's temperature, carefully hold his hand.
- When shaking the device, keep your hand away from objects that could easily break it.
Conclusions
Remember, no matter how low the concentration of mercury is used in household thermometers, children should still be protected from it. If a child breaks or even bites through a thermometer after drinking mercury, there is still no particular reason to panic.
Take the child to the doctor immediately, and do a special cleaning of the room, disposing of the remaining thermometer and mercury.
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Each point below is important. Everything is best described in the text, only a shortened version is given in the video:
1.1. Open the window in the room where the thermometer broke.
Close the door so that polluted air does not spread throughout the apartment (i.e. eliminate draft).
You need to ventilate for at least an hour, or better yet, longer.
In the following days and for another couple of months, it is advisable to keep the window slightly open.
1.2. Contain mercury spill areas. It sticks to metal surfaces and can also be easily spread around the house on the soles of your feet.
1.3. BEFORE collecting mercury:
- put it on rubber gloves: the substance must not come into contact with the skin;
- to protect soles from contamination – shoe covers or plastic bags;
- to protect the respiratory system - a cotton-gauze bandage soaked in a soda solution or moistened with water.
1.4. As carefully as possible (!) collect the mercury and all parts of the broken thermometer into a glass jar of cold water. The water in the jar is needed to prevent the mercury from evaporating.
Small mercury droplets-balls can be assembled using:
- syringe,
- rubber bulb,
– two sheets of wet paper or newspaper,
- patch,
- scotch tape,
- wet cotton wool,
– plasticine,
– a damp brush for painting or shaving.
Carefully go through all the cracks! A syringe with a thick needle or a bulb with a thin tip will help you with this.
If there is a suspicion that mercury has gotten behind the baseboard or under parquet floorboards, be sure to remove them and check!
If cleaning takes longer, take a break every 15 minutes and go outside. fresh air.
1.5. Close the jar tightly with the screw cap.
Hold her away from heating devices.
You can use a plastic jar with a tight lid if you don’t have a glass one on hand.
1.6. You cannot throw away a jar with a broken thermometer. It will then need to be handed over to a company involved in the disposal of mercury waste or to the Ministry of Emergency Situations (service “101”). Also, information about mercury collection points can be found in the DEZ.
1.7. Treat the mercury spill area with a solution bleach (preferred) or potassium permanganate.
For your own health it's important to do it right, so
see additional instructions.
What not to do:
2.1. You cannot create a draft in a room before you have removed the mercury there. See clause 1.1.
2.2. Do not throw a broken thermometer into the garbage chute!
2.3. You cannot sweep up the remains of the thermometer with a broom: the hard rods of the broom will only crush the mercury into fine toxic dust and spread it over an even larger area!
2.4. You cannot collect the remains with a vacuum cleaner: the air it blows will increase the evaporation of the poison.
In 90% of cases, a vacuum cleaner does not collect mercury, but only sprays it, which increases the area of evaporation (and the concentration of mercury vapor in the air). Some of the toxic metal deposited in the vacuum cleaner will be sprayed throughout the apartment when it is turned on again.
2.5. It is very difficult to collect mercury if the thermometer breaks on a sofa, carpet or other porous or fleecy surfaces. In this case, some decide to throw the item away or take it to the dry cleaner. But dry cleaning can fail, and throwing it away is also a bad decision. After all, someone will probably pick up the item and end up with mercury vapor poisoning as a result.
There are two options left:
2.6. OPTION 1. Hand over the item to a specialized organization for the collection of mercury-containing waste (as for the Ministry of Emergency Situations and many state and commercial organizations, then in practice this does not work well).
OPTION 2. Do not try to hand over the item, but simply call professionals for demercurization (mercury removal). This is the simplest and most reasonable way (require presentation of an accreditation certificate).
2.7. Fabrics and clothing that may have mercury stuck to them should not be washed. V washing machine. If possible, this thing is better throw away, rendering unusable, so that no one uses it, to their own misfortune.
2.8. Mercury should not be disposed of in sewers. It tends to settle in sewer pipes and slowly “succumb” to harmful fumes from there. By the way, it is incredibly difficult to remove toxic metal from the sewer.
2.9. Gloves, contaminated rags and other used items should not be washed or washed in the sink. It is better to pack them in a thick transparent plastic bag and also hand them over to an organization that collects mercury waste.
3. AFTER cleaning:
a) if you worked in shoes without shoe covers, then wash their soles with bleach (or potassium permanganate) and a soap-soda solution
b) rinse your mouth and throat weak pink solution of potassium permanganate (dilute in hot water for better dissolution);
c) brush your teeth thoroughly;
d) take 2-3 tablets activated carbon
;
e) drink more diuretic liquid (tea, coffee, juice).
How dangerous is the situation when a child breaks a thermometer? Is it necessary to “evacuate” the entire apartment as a result, or is it enough to just do a wet cleaning? What effect does mercury vapor have on children's bodies? What to do if a child swallows mercury? Similar situations occur from time to time in different families, and it is useful for all parents to know how to deal with such cases.
A broken thermometer will not cause serious problems if the spilled mercury is properly disposed of.
Let’s say right away: there is not that much mercury in the thermometer itself, so you shouldn’t worry about poisoning the whole family with its vapors. A thermometer broken by children, which you usually use to measure body temperature, is not a reason to panic - just treat this situation with increased attention. There is no serious danger in such a case, but it can cause some harm to health.
We know from school that mercury is extremely poisonous. Its vapors, once in the respiratory tract, can either simply make you feel a little worse or seriously disrupt the functioning of your internal organs, depending on the dose received. The most serious consequence is that a person will have to treat diseased internal organs for a long time.
Mercury begins to evaporate when the room temperature exceeds 18°. Vapors enter the body not only during breathing, they can seep through the surface of our skin, however, in the case of very high concentrations in the air.
Mercury vapor affects:
- mucous membrane of the nose and throat;
- gums;
- central nervous system.
Since a child’s body is weaker than an adult, it is, of course, more dangerous for him to be in a room with mercury vapor.
Mercury vapor in high concentrations affects the mucous membranes and can cause problems with the central nervous system.
What to do if a thermometer is broken in the house
A thermometer, of course, is not a toy, and you shouldn’t give it to children again, but anything can happen. If your child has broken a thermometer, you need to quickly:
- take the baby out of the room;
- remove the fragments of the broken device;
- collect and dispose of mercury balls.
Keep in mind that mercury balls are very mobile and have the ability to seep into any cracks in the floor. Once stuck there, the mercury will begin to evaporate, posing a threat to the health of children specifically - after all, children are closer to the floor than we are. The mercury balls are small, so collecting them is quite difficult, and with poor lighting, sometimes you can’t even see small drops.
Where to put the thermometer and mercury
The easiest way is to call the Ministry of Emergency Situations employees by calling them by phone and explaining the situation, especially in the event confusion and lack of necessary tools at hand. However, most likely, the employees will not come to you, but will simply give a brief consultation over the phone, explaining what to do.
Disposal requirements
Self-disposal is a step-by-step set of actions. The following tools will help you clean up:
- adhesive tape, plaster, electrical tape;
- flashlight - illuminate hard-to-reach areas;
- two sheets of thick paper (you cannot use a broom or vacuum cleaner);
- cotton wool;
- syringe or medical bulb.
Do not collect spilled mercury with a vacuum cleaner. Firstly, it will evaporate even faster, and secondly, it will not be possible to clean the vacuum cleaner; it will be easier to destroy it.
Please note that collecting mercury balls with a broom is extremely inconvenient: you will simply be chasing them around the floor. Pieces of paper are much more reliable in this case.
It is better to dispose of spilled mercury using a rubber bulb or a medical syringe.
You will also have to cook in glass jars:
- soap and soda solution for cleaning the floor;
- high concentration manganese solution;
- ordinary water, put fragments of a thermometer and mercury in it.
We do the cleaning
- Close the doors, removing both children and adults from the room.
- Put rubber slippers (preferably shoe covers) on your feet, a damp cloth mask on your face, and thick gloves on your hands.
- Soak a rag in a manganese solution and lay it at the entrance, at the same time tightly plugging the gap under the doors with it.
- Open the windows, so the mercury vapor will disappear faster.
- Collect the broken thermometer fragments in a jar of water. Be careful so that the remaining mercury in the flask does not spill out.
- Using two sheets of paper, collect the balls of mercury into a single puddle, then distill it onto a sheet of paper and place it in a jar of water to the “remains” of the thermometer.
- Using adhesive tape, collect the remaining small balls, also placing them in a jar.
- Mercury that has flowed into the cracks of the parquet and under the baseboard is removed using a bulb (syringe). Use a flashlight to illuminate the balls; in the light the balls will sparkle with a metallic color.
- Next, close the jar with a tight lid and begin to wash the floor - first with manganese, and then with a soap solution.
During cleaning, it is necessary to take measures to protect the respiratory system and skin.
After cleaning up, put the slippers, gloves, and bandage in one bag along with the jar where the collected fragments and mercury are stored. Now it is advisable to find out where to put the waste: such dangerous things are not thrown away with ordinary garbage. Call the Ministry of Emergency Situations and specify the disposal location.
Clothes contaminated with mercury must be disposed of; they cannot be washed. It is forbidden to flush collected mercury down the toilet.
Mercury got on the carpet, bedspread
Quite expensive clothes or a valuable carpet, of course, should not be thrown away due to mercury contamination. They can be cleaned of mercury:
- shake out bedspreads, clothes and carpets outside;
- hang it out to dry, but not on the balcony, but in deserted places - in the country, behind the house, in the garage. They will have to weather for three months;
- then have all items dry cleaned and then are allowed to be used.
Quarantine measures
Taking care of the health of loved ones, it is better to temporarily, for about a week, make the room where the thermometer was broken uninhabited. Open the windows there and constantly ventilate, wash the floor daily with soap and soda solution.
It is extremely important to close the door to the room - you do not need drafts in an infected room.
If you are very concerned about the risk of vapor poisoning, simply call the laboratory service. From there they will bring special instruments and measure the level of mercury concentration in the room and near the floor.
The child bit through the thermometer and swallowed mercury
Sometimes it turns out that they didn’t keep an eye on the child and came after the incident, and it’s quite possible that the baby, having “crashed” a useful thing, at the same time tried the cute mercury balls rolled out from the broken thermometer on his tongue and even swallowed it. The situation is, of course, unpleasant, but, we repeat, not particularly critical, since the concentration of mercury in household appliances is too low to pose a serious threat to the child’s body.
A child who has swallowed mercury from a thermometer should be shown to a doctor.
But it is still necessary to show the baby to a doctor. Sometimes the baby does not drop the thermometer, but, for example, bites it, chews it, and as a result scratches his tongue, lips with fragments, and often swallows a fragment, and in such a case the consequences are much more dangerous than mercury in low concentrations.
Symptoms of mercury vapor poisoning
Fearing that during your absence the child inhaled mercury, bit off the tip of the thermometer and drank the contents, keep an eye on the baby. Poisoning can be recognized by the following signs:
- the baby quickly weakens and behaves apathetically;
- drowsiness will appear, the baby will feel dizzy;
- the pulse will become rapid;
- the child often wants to go to the toilet and sweats profusely;
- his arms and legs are shaking;
- The baby becomes inattentive and memory deteriorates.
Consequences
As a result of poisoning, unpleasant consequences will soon arise, fraught with complications:
- possible development of pneumonia, hypotension;
- the functioning of the thyroid gland will go wrong;
- hypertension will occur;
- pathologies will appear in the functioning of the kidneys, liver and gall bladder;
- the risk of tuberculosis and atherosclerosis increases.
Poisoning with concentrated mercury vapor can lead to serious pathologies.
Ways to remove mercury vapor from the body
Our body is quite capable of removing the heavy metals that have entered it. After all, mercury can accumulate in us not only when living in an apartment full of broken thermometers. There is also a lot of it in:
- some seafood;
- polluted air;
- poor quality drinking water;
- household chemicals;
- ointments and whitening creams.
There are several ways to help the body cleanse itself of accumulated mercury.
- Make a decoction of coriander (cilantro): 8 teaspoons of finely chopped herbs are poured into a liter of boiling water, then left for about half an hour. Drink coriander decoction, replacing regular tea, for a couple of months. Brew the decoction only in glass containers, but not in metal ones.
- Take a decoction of burdock roots. 10 grams of dried plant roots are poured with a glass of boiling water, then boiled over low heat for a quarter of an hour. The broth is filtered. You need to drink a tablespoon three times a day.
- Follow a special diet with plenty of seaweed, carrots, beets - similar the products themselves remove heavy metals or make them more inert.
Remember: the process of removing mercury from the body takes quite a long time, so be patient.
A decoction of burdock roots will help remove mercury vapor from the body.
Prevention of disaster
Young children have to take their temperature quite often. That's why It’s better to buy not an ordinary thermometer for your home, but a special safe one - infrared and electronic. The baby will no longer be able to see through the tip of this device, bite it off no matter how hard he tries, and it is much more convenient to use such a device - the temperature values are clearly visible on the electronic display.
Using a mercury thermometer the old fashioned way, follow the rules:
- Do not give the device to small children.
- Store the device in a special case and out of the reach of children.
- When measuring your baby's temperature, carefully hold his hand.
- When shaking the device, keep your hand away from objects that could easily break it.
Conclusions
Remember, no matter how low the concentration of mercury is used in household thermometers, children should still be protected from it. If a child breaks or even bites through a thermometer after drinking mercury, there is still no particular reason to panic.
Take the child to the doctor immediately, and do a special cleaning of the room, disposing of the remaining thermometer and mercury.