What to do if a child breaks a mercury thermometer?

Many people are faced with such a problem as damage to the mercury thermometer, and this can happen not only to adults, but also to children. If your child breaks a thermometer, there is no need to sound the alarm, just pay special attention to this incident. This situation is serious, so all parents should have an idea of ​​what to do in such cases and what actions to avoid.

In families with children, it is necessary to periodically conduct conversations about the dangers of a broken thermometer, and warn that in such cases parents must be informed immediately, since mercury vapor can cause serious harm to health.

What is the danger of a broken thermometer?

If the integrity of the thermometer is damaged, it is very important to properly collect and dispose of mercury; otherwise, its particles may become clogged in hard-to-reach places and evaporate for a long time, causing harm to health. Moreover, it is not so easy to notice them with the naked eye, and they roll out very quickly.

Poisonous mercury vapor enters the body through the respiratory tract and can lead to a variety of consequences: from a slight deterioration in general condition to a tendency to severe diseases of internal organs.

Evaporation of the substance occurs at a temperature of 18 degrees. If the leak is established in large volumes, then it enters the body through the pores of the skin and mucous membranes, affecting the gums, kidneys, and central nervous system.

What absolutely should not be done if you break a thermometer:

• A broken thermometer, collected mercury, materials you used to collect metal, or even if the thermometer broke and the mercury did not leak out - you should not throw it into the garbage chute, sewer, or trash container.
• If you followed the algorithm and put everything in a jar of potassium permanganate, this jar also cannot be thrown into the above places - mercury is not neutralized, this is only a temporary measure until disposal in a specialized organization.
• Do not use a broom, rag or vacuum cleaner to collect mercury.
• You cannot wash clothes in a washing machine and shoes that you wore while collecting mercury; they should be handed over to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
• Until all sources of evaporation have been collected, it is impossible to create a draft in the apartment.

How to recognize vapor poisoning?

If you spend a long time in a room with mercury vapor, even when it does not exceed permissible standards, signs of mercury poisoning may develop:

• decreased performance, increased fatigue;
• dizziness;
• signs of apathy;
• drowsiness;
• an irritable or shy state that was previously unusual for a person;
• recurrent headaches;
• weakness;
• tremors of legs and arms;
• memory loss, inattention;
• frequent urination;
• heart rhythm disturbance;
• increased sweating;
• dysfunction of receptors;
• respiratory rhythm disturbance;
• pneumonia;
• hypotension;
• thyroid disorder.

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Mercury can contribute to the development of hypertension, pathological processes in the gallbladder and liver, atherosclerosis, and tuberculosis.

Mercury poses the greatest danger to pregnant women and children, as it leads to the development of severe intrauterine pathologies of the fetus and complications during pregnancy. Children exposed to this substance may develop problems with the kidneys and respiratory system. Women may also experience menstrual irregularities.

On a note

The consequences can be felt even if contact with toxic fumes has long been stopped, so follow the rules that indicate what to do if the thermometer is damaged.

If your thermometer breaks, call specialists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations

What is the right thing to do?

If you break a thermometer, then there are two options for solving the problem. The first one is very simple, suitable for those who are immediately confused and forget what needs to be done in such cases. Just call the sanitary service or the Ministry of Emergency Situations and report the incident. Next, they will either show you how to handle it yourself, or they will take over the disposal issue themselves.

If you are able to fix the problem yourself, then you need to do everything in accordance with the instructions below.

1. Start by clearing out the room that contains the damaged mercury thermometer. It is better to close the door tightly.
2. Next, start preparing a soap-soda and highly concentrated manganese solution. Prepare a glass jar with water, adhesive tape (tape, tape, tape, etc.), a flashlight, 2 sheets of paper, a brush or cotton wool, a medical bulb (if you don’t have it, take a syringe).
3. Now prepare yourself: put on rubber slippers or shoe covers, protect your respiratory organs with a damp cloth mask, and use medical tight-fitting gloves on your hands.
4. When everything is prepared, you can proceed directly to disposal. At the entrance to the room, lay a rag soaked in a manganese solution and close the door.
5. Leave the windows open. Carefully collect the visible parts of the broken thermometer into a jar of water, trying to prevent the mercury remaining in the flask from leaking out.
6. Using paper, gather the metal balls into one large one and send them to the rest of the thermometer, and then collect the small particles by gluing them to adhesive tape and also place them in the jar.
7. Now all that remains is to collect the mercury that has rolled into hard-to-reach places. This must be done with a syringe or bulb. The smallest parts can be detected with a flashlight. When exposed to light, the balls will take on a metallic color. The resulting material is also placed in a container with water.
8. When all the elements are collected, close the jar. Now wash the floor well: first with manganese, and then with a soap-soda solution.
9. Remove the clothes you wore for cleaning, put them in a separate bag and tie them.
10. Now you need to call the Ministry of Emergency Situations and find out where to deliver the remains of the thermometer and clothing that came into contact with its contents.

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It’s worth noting right away that you should never throw away the remains of a thermometer that a child has bitten or broken, otherwise you will endanger the health of everyone around you. For 7 days after the incident, it is better not to be in that room, but it must be constantly ventilated and the floor must be washed daily with soap and soda or a chlorine-containing solution. If the thought that there is mercury left somewhere does not leave you, call a laboratory service to measure the level of this element in the air.

What to do? Let's explain step by step

If you notice a broken mercury thermometer, do not panic:

1. Wash your child's hands thoroughly with soap.
2. Inspect your child's clothing, skin, and hair for debris or mercury. If you notice traces of an emergency on clothing, the baby should be changed and the clothes thrown away, packed in a sealed bag.
3. It is better to take the child out of the apartment into fresh air. Keep pets away from the spill area as well, as they can spread the mercury to other rooms.
4. Try to protect your respiratory system. Use a bandage or respirator. If you don’t have special equipment, pull the collar of a thick sweater over your face. Perform further cleaning using rubber gloves.
5. As quickly as possible, collect the mercury beads using a syringe, a piece of paper or tape and pour them into a screw-top jar with cold water. The mercury will settle to the bottom, which will reduce further evaporation. Place all the fragments there too. Please note that the container should not be kept near heating devices or batteries. After collecting the container with mercury and fragments, pack it in a sealed bag.
6. Shine a flashlight on the floor and check to see if there are any traces of a broken thermometer. To collect the remains of fragments and mercury, it is recommended to use newspaper soaked in water - apply the resulting paper pulp to the scene of the incident, and then carefully collect it in the same container.
7. Open the windows and ventilate the apartment thoroughly for several hours. Please note that you cannot open the windows immediately after the incident, so that the draft does not disperse mercury balls and fumes throughout the room.
8. Wash the floor with a soap solution (for 1 liter of water - rub 40 grams of soap and add 50 grams of soda). Repeat the procedure several times during the day.
9. Protective equipment, clothes and shoes used during cleaning will have to be thrown away (do not confuse: “throw away” and not “wash”, otherwise you will contaminate the washing machine, and with it the rest of the things with subsequent washing). Place all items in a separate sealed bag.
10. To minimize the effect of the poison, the child should brush his teeth and take a sorbent (for example, activated carbon). After half an hour, give warm milk, you can feed him oatmeal or rice porridge, and finish with a laxative.

To dispose of collected mercury, contact the SES or your management company: they should be able to tell you the nearest recycling point for used batteries, mercury lamps and thermometers. You should not throw mercury down the garbage disposal or into the toilet.

Is it dangerous to get mercury into the body?

It often happens that a child not only bites through the thermometer, but also swallows mercury from it. Situations like this worry parents a lot. What to do?

Remember, if the baby swallowed a small amount of the substance, it is unlikely to cause harm to health, but you still need to go to the doctor for an examination, since a piece of glass could enter the body with it. Based on this, it can be argued that cases where a child swallows this metal are less dangerous than inhaling its vapors.

In order to avoid going to class, the child decided to pretend to be sick. And for this I used the old trick with a thermometer: I dipped it in a kettle of hot water. The thermometer, of course, burst. Distressed by the failure, the malingerer threw out the water with mercury and pieces of glass in the yard and went to class.

The story continued in the evening: the schoolboy drank tea. The water was boiled, of course, in that same kettle... And in the morning the child announced: “I don’t feel well.” The mother began to look for a thermometer. Word by word, it became clear under what circumstances he disappeared. I looked into the teapot and there were droplets of mercury glistening there. What to do in such a situation? The head of the public relations sector of the regional EMERCOM Svetlana Shkinder responded.

— As you know, mercury is a dangerous substance, but it is not the liquid metal itself that causes poisoning, but its vapor. Household medical thermometers contain about 2 grams of mercury. This amount is enough to infect a room or even the entire apartment,” said Svetlana Alexandrovna. — A broken thermometer is the most common cause of mercury vapor entering indoor air.

The main thing not to do when a child has swallowed mercury is to panic, fuss and scare the baby. Most likely, nothing bad will happen if parents follow the recommendations exactly. It is important to consult a doctor in time, without waiting for alarming symptoms to appear: general malaise, apathy and weakness, headache, dizziness, dry mouth, excessive salivation, diarrhea, paroxysmal abdominal pain, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath and cough, increased body temperature. The child will be taken to the hospital, where the stomach will be completely cleaned. By the way, so that children are not afraid to turn to their parents for help, you should not threaten them with punishment for a broken thermometer.

The room itself needs to be cleaned. But first, create the coolest microclimate possible. Thermometer fragments and metal should only be collected using rubber gloves. Large balls can be swept with a damp brush or broom into a plastic or enamel scoop. To collect smaller balls, use medical plaster or tape, pipettes with a rubber bulb, or tampons made from soaked paper or cotton wool. Do not use vacuum cleaners under any circumstances - this way you risk spraying microscopic particles of the substance throughout the apartment. Place the collected mixture in an empty glass jar.

After mechanical cleaning, you can begin chemical demercurization using available means. To prepare solutions, potassium permanganate, or potassium permanganate, as well as various chlorine-containing bleaches and disinfectants are used. After applying the solution, the surface must dry, so you need to wash it thoroughly with detergents. All tools used for cleaning should also be placed in a glass jar, filled with water and tightly closed with a lid.

Next, call the Ministry of Emergency Situations at 112 or 101. They will tell you where you can dispose of the collected mercury and things that came into contact with it. Under no circumstances should collected mercury be poured down the drain or thrown into a garbage chute. This can lead to new stains that are difficult to remove.

To protect your baby forever from such dangerous situations, the thermometer must be kept out of the child’s reach. The easiest way to avoid problems associated with such fragile items is to purchase an electronic thermometer. It costs more, but it will forever eliminate worries about mercury in the house.

Photos from open sources.

What should you not do?

There are a number of things that should not be done when a child has broken a thermometer or bitten through it.

• Do not create drafts in a room contaminated with mercury.
• Avoid vacuuming metal residues. Otherwise, you will only speed up evaporation and pollute the air even more, and the vacuum cleaner will have to be destroyed after that.
• If a child bites off or breaks off a thermometer, do not throw it in the trash, but dispose of it in accordance with the recommendations above.
• Cleaning with a broom is also prohibited, otherwise you will spread the mercury even more throughout the room and beyond.
• Do not flush mercury down the drain, as it will also evaporate from there and enter the room, and it is several times more difficult to dispose of it directly there.
• Clothing soiled with this substance should not be machine washed. It is better to dispose of it by handing it over to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

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It is better to give preference to safe types of thermometers

The thermometer broke - first steps

Did you break the thermometer? Do not panic! You can collect mercury balls yourself without causing harm to your health. BUT REMEMBER! If a thermometer with mercury breaks in your house, you are dealing with a toxic substance of the first hazard class.

The fact that mercury is an extremely dangerous substance is known to many, so it is not surprising that, having broken a thermometer in the house, a person panics and expects instant poisoning. Collecting mercury from a broken thermometer is not easy. It is especially difficult to do this in a hurry, with hands shaking from fear.

Some go to the other extreme and treat the incident too carelessly: mercury is carelessly swept with a broom into the trash can, while many tiny balls safely remain in the living room and poison the air with toxic fumes for a long time.

The most important thing is to remain calm. Mercury is poisonous, and its fumes can cause serious poisoning. To minimize harm, you need to pull yourself together and begin to act, based on the recommendations of specialists.

Is mercury from a broken thermometer dangerous?

Remove all people from the premises

First, you need to remove all residents from the apartment in which the thermometer broke. Pregnant women, children and the elderly are especially susceptible to the toxic effects of mercury. It is also better to take pets out of the room so that they themselves do not get poisoned and transfer microparticles of mercury on their paws to other places.

It is not the mercury balls themselves that pose the danger, but their vapors. The melting point of mercury is low - 38.83°C. Therefore, in the room where the thermometer has broken, you need to reduce the temperature to a minimum if possible. If it's cool outside, open the windows immediately. If it's hot, turn on the air conditioning. Just do not allow a draft - because of it, mercury balls can scatter around the room and break into smaller ones.

Preparing to collect mercury

Have you decided to take on the collection of mercury? Then you should take care of your own safety:

• put shoe covers or plastic bags on your feet;
• change into synthetic clothes (unlike natural materials, its fibers will absorb less toxic fumes);
• Protect your face with a mask, preferably with a wet layer of gauze (if you don’t have a mask, use a towel or diaper);
• Put rubber gloves on your hands.

All uniforms will have to be thrown away after cleaning. Therefore, choose things that you won’t be sorry to say goodbye to.

To collect mercury balls from a broken thermometer, you will also need:

• a couple of sheets of A4 paper and an envelope;
• soft brush or cotton pad;
• a glass container with a sealed lid filled with a solution of potassium permanganate or plain water;
• rubber bulb or syringe;
• wet newspaper;
• rag;
• potassium permanganate solution;
• adhesive plaster or tape.

Close the doors in other rooms of the apartment tightly - this will help minimize the penetration of mercury vapor into other rooms. Place a damp cloth under the door in an infected room . This way you will curb the spread of toxic substances.

You can also call 01. The rescue service is unlikely to arrive due to a broken thermometer, but experts will give recommendations on what to do in such a situation.

For Moscow and Moscow Region:

DID THE THERMOGENER BROKE? CONTACT THE MERCURY DISPOSAL SERVICE IMMEDIATELY!

+7 – HELP HOTLINE – 24 HOURS (MOSCOW + MO)

Experts will tell you how to act correctly and how not to get poisoned!

Our certified specialists, using only special equipment, will measure the concentration of mercury vapor in the air and identify the sources. All detected mercury is quickly eliminated during special demercurization measures.

We provide guarantees for all work: Free return visit and measurement of mercury vapor within 7 days!

Accredited laboratory - State. license Certificate No. RA RU 21EN01

Instructions for collecting mercury

Mercury balls
Mercury balls are collected as follows: rolled onto a sheet of paper or into an envelope with another sheet, a soft brush or a cotton pad soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate. Small droplets of mercury can be removed with adhesive tape or a rubber bulb.

Carefully inspect all surfaces and crevices in the room. To do this, it is better to illuminate them by placing the lamp at an angle to the floor. If drops of mercury get into the cracks, remove them using a bulb or syringe. If there are traces of mercury under the baseboard, dismantle it and remove the silver balls.

If a thermometer breaks and mercury gets on the carpet, clothes, soft toys, or upholstered furniture, it is almost impossible to clean the mercury from it yourself. It’s better to say goodbye to these things - send them for recycling or burn them outside the city. Can't refuse them? Try leaving contaminated items outside for 2-3 months - for example, in a country house. The sun's rays will cause the mercury to evaporate and disappear.

It is strictly forbidden to use a vacuum cleaner or broom to collect mercury . The air flow from the vacuum cleaner will only spread toxic particles throughout the apartment. The hard bristles of the broom will crush the mercury balls. Dangerous microparticles will remain in the room and will continue to poison your household even after the consequences of the “accident” have been eliminated (it’s like a time bomb).

If the process of collecting mercury takes a long time, go out every 15 minutes to breathe clean air. In cases where the temperature in the room cannot be reduced (it is hot summer outside), you should not stay in the contaminated room for more than 15 minutes continuously. In this case, of course, every time you leave an infected room, you need to remove your shoe covers.

Video instructions: What to do if the thermometer breaks

After watching this video, you will learn: what to do if the thermometer breaks? How to properly collect mercury? How to avoid poisoning from mercury vapor? Who to call if the thermometer breaks? All questions will be answered by an expert from the independent environmental laboratory TESTECO - Alexander Kuksa:

How to finally clean the room?

When all the balls and droplets of mercury have been eliminated, it is necessary to begin treating the surfaces in the room. Prepare a disinfectant solution. Manganese (20 g of potassium permanganate per 10 liters of water) or soap and soda (40 g of soap and 50 g of soda per 1 liter of water) are suitable. If such ingredients are not available at home, use “Whiteness”.

Using a washcloth or brush dipped in a disinfecting solution, thoroughly wipe all surfaces in the room, and spray the cracks.

After treating the surfaces, leave the windows open for a few more hours. Let the room be well ventilated. All this time, doors to other rooms must be closed.

How to dispose of mercury?

Place mercury, a broken thermometer with all the fragments, sheets of paper and adhesive tape in a jar with manganese solution and close the lid. Put everything you were wearing (clothes, shoe covers, mask) into a bag and tie it. All these items should not be thrown into the trash can or down the drain. They must be disposed of correctly.

It is recommended to hand over a broken thermometer with all mercury balls to a mercury collection and disposal service. Judging by the reviews, they do not always agree to accept waste, but you need to try to insist on your own. It is highly undesirable to throw away a broken thermometer with ordinary trash. It contains about 2 g of a toxic substance of hazard class 1. You can also go to a paid recycling point. True, such organizations do not function in all cities.

Items that have been in contact with mercury can be sent to a landfill. They should be spoiled first so that no one decides to pick them up.

What should not be done if a thermometer breaks in the room?

1. When ventilating the room, you should not create a draft, because the smallest balls of mercury will scatter throughout the room and you will not be able to detect them.
2. You cannot use a regular broom. Rough rods will break up the mercury beads and send them into the air, making it impossible for you to remove them.
3. Using a vacuum cleaner will actually spray mercury throughout the room. In addition, there will be a big problem with disinfecting this very useful household appliance, so you will most likely have to abandon it.
4. You should not wash things contaminated with mercury, as this will increase the contamination of the apartment with this substance (the washing machine and sewer system will be affected).
5. Collected mercury should not be disposed of in a sewer, garbage chute, or regular landfill.

Individual prevention

After complete disinfection of the room, you need to take care of yourself. After disposing of clothes, go to the shower, change into clean clothes, brush your teeth, and rinse your mouth and throat with a weak solution of soda or potassium permanganate.

Since most of the toxic substances are eliminated through the kidneys, drink more fluids - tea, milk, juices.

In what cases should you call specialists?

If the thermometer breaks in a small or unventilated room, it is not recommended to collect the mercury yourself. This can cause severe poisoning. It is necessary to call a mercury collection service.

The boiling point of mercury is about forty degrees Celsius, so in cases where drops of mercury fall on a hot surface (for example, on a heating radiator), evaporation will occur almost instantly.

If you suspect that you have not collected all the mercury balls, you need to call the sanitary and epidemiological station and arrange for disinfection. Another option is to conduct an independent environmental assessment of the apartment. Specialists will measure the mercury level in the apartment and also take a thermometer with them for disposal.

The expert also emphasizes: “If you are not sure that you have collected all the mercury balls, then you should call a specialist who will disinfect the premises; on the website of the Moscow Center for Epidemiology and Hygiene you can find out the number of the nearest sanitary and epidemiological station or contact any independent environmental expert to inspect your home. Specialists will measure the mercury level and also carry out professional demercurization of the mercury thermometer. Then they will make a control measurement of the mercury level and take away from you a jar of collected mercury and contaminated items - all of this will be disposed of.

Under any conditions, people at high risk should not independently remove mercury from a broken thermometer. This category includes:

• pregnant women (mercury easily penetrates the placental barrier and can disrupt the development of the child);
• persons under the age of 18 and after 65 years (the body’s sensitivity threshold to mercury vapor is increased);
• patients with acute and chronic diseases of the urinary and central nervous system.

Memo (clickable):

If the thermometer breaks - a reminder (clickable)