What happens if mercury touches you

Additionally, it is recommended that you collect the items listed below and keep them with the kit. Sulfur powder also called flowers of sulfur can be purchased from agriculture supply stores, garden centers, and some pharmacies.

For questions about the type of sulfur powder used during mercury spill cleanup, please contact the New York State Department of Health at or Heat from the vacuum cleaner's motor will increase the amount of mercury vapor in the air.

Mops and brooms will spread the mercury, making proper clean up more difficult. The vacuum cleaner, mop or broom will become contaminated with mercury. NEVER use a washer or dryer to clean clothing that became contaminated with liquid mercury. The washer and dryer can become contaminated with mercury. If these items are contaminated with mercury, they are very difficult to clean and may have to be disposed as hazardous waste.

Practical Information about mercury A mercury spill usually forms several pools and many beads of mercury. Galinstan liquid consists of tin, indium, and gallium. According to its manufacturer, Galinstan is not toxic when swallowed because it passes through the digestive system without effect. Inhalation is also not a concern because there is no absorption through the lungs. Skin exposures to Galinstan can cause irritation. If the liquid is silver in color it might be mercury.

Spilled mercury has a unique appearance. It is a thick, shiny, fast-moving liquid metal that can break up into little balls that reform when pushed together. But not all thermometers with silver liquid contain mercury.

Mercury can be poisonous in certain situations. Most oral and rectal thermometers contain about 0. The main health problems from mercury are from the vapors. These are produced at room temperature and especially when mercury is heated. The vapors can be inhaled and are absorbed into the body. The immediate effects of inhaling highly concentrated vapors include coughing, sore throat, difficulty breathing, chest pain, vomiting, and headache. An unexpected way to heat up mercury and produce vapors occurs when a vacuum cleaner is used to clean up a mercury spill.

Never vacuum up mercury from a broken thermometer! If a mercury spill is not cleaned up right away, vapors will continue to be produced. These vapors might be in low concentrations that would not cause immediate effects, but repeated long-term exposure to vapors can cause problems such as shaking, difficulty walking, weakness, headaches, loss of appetite, gum inflammation, red skin, high blood pressure, rapid pulse, kidney damage, and personality changes.

The amount of mercury in a mercury thermometer is not enough to cause poisoning if someone handles it with intact skin, however skin irritation could occur. Unintentionally swallowing this amount of mercury would also not be well absorbed by someone who has a healthy digestive tract. It is still a good idea to call Poison Control someone touches or swallows mercury, especially if the person has a skin or digestive condition that might lead to excess absorption, like psoriasis or ulcerative colitis.

We can help you decide if you should seek medical attention. Depending on the specific circumstances surrounding the broken mercury-containing thermometers, most cases can be managed safely at home; however, always contact Poison Control at for assistance. Initial treatment following exposure to spilled mercury includes washing with soap and water if mercury came into contact with the skin and getting fresh air if the vapors are inhaled.

Ingestion of small amounts of mercury usually do not need a specific treatment, but rinsing with water then spitting can help remove any mercury remaining in the mouth. Jochen Flasbarth, president of Germany's Federal Environment Agency, says children in some developing countries often expose themselves to the risks by disassembling florescent lamps and energy saving lamps to get at the metal inside.

In addition to liquid mercury, mercury salts and compounds are also dangerous, especially when they get into water systems through industrial waste. Mercury poisoning via heavily contaminated seafood and fish can harm a person's fertility as well as threaten their nervous system. But while mercury is generally considered highly poisonous, doctors in the late 19th century gave patients significant amounts of the element to treat intestinal obstructions.

The effect is completely different when mercury is inhaled. As a vapor, the mercury is inhaled as individual atoms and quickly absorbed by the lungs where its poisonous effects begin to develop.

If, however, you drink mercury, hardly any of it stays in the system - most of it exits the body once it has performed its function. But you really shouldn't try drinking mercury - most of the patients in the 19th century didn't survive.

It's all too easy to inhale mercury unintentionally along the way. Humans have been using mercury since ancient times. In the Middle Ages, it was used in alchemy and medicine.

It was only in the modern period that it became clear that the metal is highly poisonous. There's also mercury in fluorescent lighting. Although they save energy, disposal can be a problem. Energy-saving bulbs should not be thrown away with other waste, due to the tiny amount of mercury they contain. A forklift operator at the DELA recycling company in Essen, Germany, dumps a load of compact fluorescent tubes into a shredder. I'm 56 and pretty darn healthy! I also remember getting a tube of gunk that you could squeeze out a blob, blow it up into a balloon and pinch shut.

Probably was full of lead! How did we survive such "unhealthy" childhoods! When I was a grade-schooler, I belonged to an informal "science club". We used to study various science topics and run low-cost experiments. One member had some mercury in a bottle that we put into a bowl and played with using our fingers, splitting it into smaller drops and then reuniting. We didn't realize then it wasn't a good idea! Maybe could account for some of my digestive problems now?

I rubbed mercury on coins, made lead soldiers, and our home water pipes were lead. When I worked in a large lab for two years in my early twenties we mixed asbestos, flour, and water to insulate our equipment. The inside of our noses were white with asbestos. A friend of mine who had a similar background died two years ago from a heart attack unrelated to mercury. I am 80 with no known health problems. When I was a kid, back before there were spirit thermometers, the various oil companies and insurance companies used to mail out desk calendars with little thermometers on one side.

I would collect as many as I could, break them open, and chase the globs of mercury around for hours, rolling it around in my hand and across the floor. I had amassed a sizable amount of Hg from several years of multiple calendars. The only warning I ever got was mom saying, "Don't eat that stuff.

I am 80 so of course I touched mercury in chemistry lab. It was a great way to make silver dimes new and shiny. In high school chemistry , I accidentally got in on a blue birthstone ring that was gold. It turned it silver. It stayed like that until a thief stole it when I was in college.

Luckily, it was not a very expensive ring nor something I wore much. We were playing with the mercury on our desks at our teacher's suggestion when this occurred. There were no warnings about toxicity at the time a long time ago. Yes, in fact I knew a guy who was trapped in a vessel of Hg up to his waist! His wellingtons where full and he could not move, before I helped to rescue him he fell over in 3 foot deep Hg.

He didn't drown. He was fine after this, but his mercury urine levels where well over the safe limits. I had some in the palm of my hand for about five minutes when I was in middle school.

Knowing nothing about it I had no idea why my hand turned red. Darn bet'cha. It was every science teachers toy after blowing up magnesium in water.

The danger in mercury is long term exposure to its vapor. Most chemistry rooms have a bead of Mercury flowing around their mop boards. Pull them up and wow, if the environmental agency saw that.

I use to float a shot put in a half gallon of mercury until they sent in the boys from hazmat took my toy away. Now I just blow up magnesium. Anyone know where I can get some phosphorus? In primary school we each had some on our desk ALL the time to play with. I was always cleaning mercury, cleaning up small spills and a few times arrived in the lab in the morning to find the seal on the mercury storage container on the machine had broken and the floor of the lab would be covered with a fine layer of mercury -- all of which I had to clean up.

Yes I am still alive at 62 years old, but I do have a rare form of depression for which there is only one form of medication to keep it under control. I have lost my sense of smell, and so taste. Not sure if this is a result of that or working in chemicals laboratories all my life. As a middle school age boy we had an old oil burning boiler removed and in the removal was about a pint of liquid mercury.

I asked for it and was given it. I ended up majoring in chemistry in college as a result and taught it for 30 yrs.