I broke a thermometer

You need to collect all the balls and wash the floor with potassium permanganate immediately.

to ventilate the room from mercury vapors

and only after opening the windows wide, this is very important because the draft will blow away all the mercury beads

There isn't enough of it there to be dangerous.

Where do we throw the balls, then?

I really don't quite understand the media hysteria over mercury in the last 10 years. Back in my childhood (the 70s), we broke thermometers and played with those little balls—it was especially fun to roll them on dusty surfaces. And no one got sick or died from it, somehow.

The last time I broke a thermometer, I didn't sleep in my bedroom for a month, and the room had its balcony doors wide open for over a month.

Exactly. We broke thermometers, played with the droplets—they roll so neatly—gathered it all up in a cloth, threw it in the trash, mopped the floors, and everyone's still alive. In our maternity hospital ward, a thermometer broke and nothing happened! But of course, they had those special lamps there that supposedly disinfect.

And even earlier, people drank soda from non-disposable cups in vending machines! And no one died from that either.

There's nothing to disinfect with mercury, it's not bacteria or viruses. I could understand the panic if a liter had spilled, but nothing will happen from a thermometer.

I heard that even the Ministry of Emergency Situations had to be called in such cases.

In the amount contained in one thermometer, it's not dangerous. The dose is too small. Besides, it's the mercury vapor that's dangerous, not the mercury itself. If you were to heat these beads and breathe that in, you might cause some harm. But there are known cases where people have even swallowed it and nothing happened.

My mom, when she broke a mercury thermometer, called the Emergency Services. They explained to her over the phone in great detail and clearly how to properly collect those little beads, what precautions to take, and how to dispose of the collected mercury.

I don't remember the specifics (it was a long time ago), so I won't relay what was said to avoid getting anything wrong. In short, ladies, if anyone needs to—call the Emergency Services at their contact center, and they'll give you competent advice.

+++++++

In my youth, I broke a thermometer on the stove and didn't know, and the stove was warm every day. Imagine the evaporation that occurred, and I was pregnant too. Now my daughter has allergies to many things. Could that have been the cause?

No, the cause is something else. I'll tell you more—at our factory, the inclinometer for combat tracked vehicles (tanks, BMPs) broke. There were about 150 grams of mercury. Well, it spilled, no one panicked, no one felt sick, some of it seeped into the cracks of equipment that was constantly running, with casing temperatures around 50 degrees Celsius. No one would dismantle a 10-ton machine over this nonsense. We just collected what was on the floor (about half), and the rest is still there. About 15 years have passed since then, and none of the workers have gotten sick or developed allergies. It's all nonsense.

Usually, it doesn't lead to anything serious, but there is a risk of heavy metal poisoning (and subsequent allergies and tissue diseases). It's worth wiping the area with potassium permanganate. Contact the Ministry of Emergency Situations for consultation.

Generally, after mercury vapor poisoning, hair and teeth start to fall out. As for dying from it, it's unlikely from a small amount in a thermometer. The most effective method after collecting the beads is to treat the floor surface with ferric chloride. It neutralizes mercury. The problem is, it's not readily available in ordinary households.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations should conduct demercurization.

I had this situation... I broke a thermometer and couldn't find a single mercury bead... Panic... I called a specialized office, and they scared me even more, saying I urgently needed to call a specialist with equipment to find those mercury beads... The call would cost 6 thousand... What a mess, and it's not a small amount, just hand it over... I pulled myself together. I took a magnifying glass and went to look for the beads myself, without any equipment, and I took a closer look at the broken thermometer—the part where the mercury is was intact... That's happiness for you. There you go, the money's safe and the thermometer too, but if I had called the specialists, oh, they would have had a good laugh))))))

The hysteria is being stirred up by newspapers and television. Why, though? Someone's apparently making money off demercurization, it seems.

I remember back in my distant childhood, we used to break thermometers on purpose and rub the mercury on 2-kopeck coins to make them look like 10-kopeck ones. You could buy a lot with those! No hair fell out, and my teeth are still intact... and I'm already 50... But for those who are afraid of poisoning, you can cleanse your body with Polisorb. It's excellent at removing toxins.

We had a thermometer break, didn't air anything out, didn't clean anything up, etc. My husband broke it. Moreover, after he broke it, he decided to throw it in the toilet and flush it. Nothing happened, everything's fine). We did have to fish the thermometer out later and throw it in the trash though).

Today, a thermometer broke in the hospital at night. Everyone woke up, turned on the flashes, gathered it up with makeshift materials, wiped it with a rag, and checked. We were efficient! Woke everyone around, then closed the door and slept peacefully. The whole department didn't sleep until morning, but we were unfazed—efficiency is key!

I took apart a thermometer, and not for the first time; as a child, I used to break them all the time, and the mercury would get everywhere—in the room and even into a pot of water when I heated the thermometer over steam or on the radiator. But nothing happened, everyone is alive, and I'm alive too. I cleaned up as best I could; with the pot, I just poured out the water and didn't tell anyone. Today, I think I collected everything and threw it in the trash bin. I didn't enter the room for about an hour and a half, then came back, looked closely, and there was still some mercury. I finally gathered it into a bag, then dealt with all of it because I had already read about poisoning. I washed the floor with some terribly smelly cleaning product, and it seems fine. On top of that, I'm two months pregnant, and the internet writes all sorts of things, but I believe that the vapor from the amount of mercury that couldn't be collected on the floor is really very minimal. And one more thing: it's better to buy an electronic thermometer!!!

Today at the hospital, I saw a broken thermometer in the trash can in the restroom. I went and told the nurse, and she said, "So what? Where else should it be?" And there are many pregnant women here, so I guess we'll be lying here until morning, inhaling the fumes, until the cleaner comes in the morning.

We need to call the emergency services to avoid poisoning.

My husband, when he was a child, once checked the temperature on a frying pan where fried potatoes were cooking without telling his mom. As a result, it burst from the heat, and all the mercury ended up in the food. Everyone ate it, and when his mom was serving the last portion, she noticed some little balls at the bottom—turns out, it was mercury. After that, she called the authorities, and they reassured her since the mercury in thermometers is treated and there's no reason to worry. Everyone is alive and well! Don't worry. I'm currently two months pregnant myself and broke a thermometer recently; we didn't do anything about it!

Mercury vapors are dangerous, even for the size of our apartments, even if it's 200 m². Conduct a vapor measurement, and it will become clear whether it's present in the room or not. Vapors can penetrate through water!!!!!!!!!!! And you definitely won't get rid of it with potassium permanganate, baking soda, or vinegar; that's an internet myth. Read websites of professional chemists, http://rtuti911-net.ru/, check information on verified sites, at least Wikipedia.

Yeah yeah, nothing except exceeding the maximum allowable concentration by 300 times - that's exactly the measurement result I got after a broken thermometer

You need to perform mercury decontamination of the premises - http://expert-rtuti.ru. They will assist and explain what needs to be done first, before the specialists arrive.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations doesn't respond to thermometer incidents, they don't waste time on such trivial matters, they might explain what to do. But all those paid services, yeah, they're just scamming you for money, fear makes your eyes see things bigger than they are.

Today, before reading the instructions, my husband broke a thermometer and was collecting the mercury with a juice straw. He says he swallowed it. Afterward, we decided to check the instructions—wish we hadn't. Now he's lying down, waiting for his death and chuckling. It's a pity; the guy is glowing like a lamp from IKEA for 15,000. As long as he's glowing, I won't call the emergency services.

За год 2 градусника уже разбила. С первым паниковала сильно, т.к. до этого никогда их не била и что делать не знала. Пока собрала всё, обработала и проверила на психосоматике нашла у себя все признаки отравления ртутью)) Недели 2 комната была закрыта и проветривалась. Со вторым разбитым градусником всё прошло гораздо спокойнее. )) Аккуратно все собрала, помыла и купила тест полоски на обнаружение паров ртути. Все чисто. Только слегка изменила цвет одна полоска. Значит надо в этом месте посмотреть получше. Возможно небольшие остатки ртути. Главное не паниковать.

А если идиот мужик в семье сказал только к вечеру про разбитый градусник и что все убрал, а я нахожу штук 10 довольно крупных шариков через 3 дня? Что тогда делать. В комнате побывали уже все домочадцы, включая питомцев.

Совершенно верно! Я, лично, будучи ребёнком, натирала этой ртутью медные денежки, они становились серебряными! 😉 А девочка одна, так вообще, во рту ее катала. Все живы, здоровы. Мне сейчас 66 лет. 😊