Mercury clean up

[jjirons69]

If you've gotten up what you can see, that's a very good start. To get the very small pieces, do a sweeping pattern with a damp sponge. Press it firmly on the flooring and pull inward and advance onward, working youself slowly to the center. Use duct tape wrapped around your hand, sticky-side out, to collect the fine scatterings left in your circle's center. Careful with the sponge. Put it and the tape in a ziplock and dispose of it properly. To make yourself feel even better, the duct tape trick works well on something like a Swiffer pad. Wrap it around the base sticky-side out and tamp it in a pattern to cover the entire floor. Change tape as needed.

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by jjirons69

If you've gotten up what you can see, that's a very good start. To get the very small pieces, do a sweeping pattern with a damp sponge. Press it firmly on the flooring and pull inward and advance onward, working youself slowly to the center. Use duct tape wrapped around your hand, sticky-side out, to collect the fine scatterings left in your circle's center. Careful with the sponge. Put it and the tape in a ziplock and dispose of it properly. To make yourself feel even better, the duct tape trick works well on something like a Swiffer pad. Wrap it around the base sticky-side out and tamp it in a pattern to cover the entire floor. Change tape as needed.

Oh, sure, if you want to do it the easy way...

[jjirons69]

I work in a lab, Tom, and we have half a dozen spill kits for Hg. You could spend all day doing it the right way or half an hour doing it the efficient way. Just don't eat it or inhale it (which it nearly impossible due to it's specific gravity and it's tendency not to float in air) and it's just another metal. Well, except it's a liquid at room temp. The salts are really toxic but Ken shouldn't have any of those.

Ken, duct tape is your friend!

[SeanGAR]

Originally Posted by jjirons69

I work in a lab, Tom, and we have half a dozen spill kits for Hg. You could spend all day doing it the right way or half an hour doing it the efficient way. Just don't eat it or inhale it (which it nearly impossible due to it's specific gravity and it's tendency not to float in air) and it's just another metal. Well, except it's a liquid at room temp. The salts are really toxic but Ken shouldn't have any of those.

Ken, duct tape is your friend!

+1

In the old days we'd hold mercury metal in our hands.

Vaporized mercury, salts, and especially organomercury compounds (methyl/dimethyl mercury) are quite toxic.

By the 1800s, mercuric nitrate was widely used to soften fur for hats. The resulting exposure of workers lead to a classic syndrome and the phrase "mad as a hatter." In Danbury, Connecticut, a center of hat making, the effects of exposure were characterized as "Danbury Shakes." It was not until 1941 that the use of mercury nitrate in hat making was banned in most states.

http://www.mercuryinschools.uwex.edu...g_in_world.htm

[icehog3]

Good job on the assist, Jamie!

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

It was not until 1941 that the use of mercury nitrate in hat making was banned in most states.

Most? Crap, I probably got my hats from the state that still allows it....It's the "Douchebagistan Shakes"!

[Ken]

Great, I have a nuclear disaster in my basement and you're making jokes.

Originally Posted by icehog3

Most? Crap, I probably got my hats from the state that still allows it....It's the "Douchebagistan Shakes"!

[galaga]

Originally Posted by Ken

Great, I have a nuclear disaster in my basement and you're making jokes.

That's a government employee's ten step program for you! Scare the **** out of you every time.


Seangar used to play with it and he's still functioning! Just b/c he used to be a hansom fellow and now he looks like Willie Nelson had nothing to do with the mercury: that was from playing with benzene to boost his octane.

[RGD.]

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

+1

In the old days we'd hold mercury metal in our hands.

Yep - I was just thinking back in the 60's we use to break stuff open just to get it to play with. Never affected never affected never affected us in the least bit.


Ron

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

+1

In the old days we'd hold mercury metal in our hands.

I had a pound of it in a glass jar that I'd play with in a pie tin when I was a kid. I thought it was cool because you could float coins on it. Didn't hurt me, I'm perfectly normal normal gnack normal.

My dad had a scrap iron yard back then, late 50s early 60s, in Sioux City, IA. Weiner Scrap Iron and Metal. Mercury and magnets have always held a facination for me. I still collect magnets from old hard drives and anywhere else I can get them.

Too bad mercury is not magnetic, that would make for an easy clean up!

[Ken]

Sprin

kle sulfur powder over the contaminated area

thanks Tom. I had read this previously though I missed the sulfur part until I read your post.

Originally Posted by jjirons69

If you've gotten up what you can see, that's a very good start. To make yourself feel even better, the duct tape trick works well on something like a Swiffer pad. Wrap it around the base sticky-side out and tamp it in a pattern to cover the entire floor. Change tape as needed.

I picked up most of what could be easily seen, or not so easy, last night. I know there are still tiny pieces which I couldn't get up with cards and plastic dust pan.

How serious is the concern about air quality with something this small?

In the old days we'd hold mercury metal in our hands.

Amazing how we could play with it years ago now I have websites making think I have biological spill.

[jjirons69]

Air quality should be fine. Elemental mercury is the safest form. Now, a busted fluorescent will blast you a shot of mercury vapor. In any case, it's a very minute exposure, if any at all. Your mercury problem comes from the fish you eat and the coal-powered plant down the road.

It's good you asked, though. Peace of mind!