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What to Watch for in your Home
There are several potential
mercury and mercury vapor hazards in the home, including:
- Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
Many jurisdictions are
banning the sale of incandescent bulbs. The new CFLs
contain mercury.
- Mercury thermometers.
- Thermostats for their
furnace and air conditioning units which contain small vials of elemental mercury as a part of their
switching mechanisms.
- Elemental mercury or
mercury-rich material 'collected' from various sources, including school
labs, dental offices, gold-panning, etc.
- 'Playing or experimenting
with mercury.
Usually, the small amount of
elemental mercury in these and other forms is safe, as long as it is safely
stored or encased in glass or other impermeable material. Products
and/or or containers holding mercury can break, spilling the
mercury and releasing potentially-dangerous levels of mercury vapor into the
home.
Most mercury spills in the
home involve very small amounts of mercury, which can be safely contained
and cleaned up with a proper mercury spill kit or by professional
decontamination service professionals. It is important to note that
with the increase in CFLs, the number of accidental CFL breakage and the
resulting release of mercury is likely to increase. Even, if
only one CFL is broken, it is important to properly clean up any mercury
residue from the broken CFL to ensure that no mercury vapor is being
released. At the
present time, mercury spill kits for home use can be purchased from various
suppliers for under $150, while the cost of having a professional
decontamination crew clean up a home can be much higher.
If household CFL or other
mercury spills are left
undiscovered or untreated, or improperly cleaned-up, can, over time, release enough mercury vapor into
the air in your home above safe limits. Mercury continually
and slowly releases potentially toxic mercury vapor. It is especially
important to protect young children and pregnant women from being exposed to
mercury vapor.
How not to Clean up Mercury Spills
in your Home
-
Do not use a rag, broom, vacuum cleaner or paper towel. This only breaks up the mercury into
finer droplets, pushing into carpet, cracks in the flooring and making it
even harder to find and clean up.
- Do not rely on the use of 'flower of
sulfur', sodium sulfide solution, fine powder sulfur or zinc to 'bind' or
clean-up the mercury.
None
of these stop the mercury compound that may be formed from continuing to
release mercury vapor, while you are
cleaning up and
after.
Doing it Right
- Call 1-800-663-8303
if you are not sure about how much mercury has been spilled or how to
clean it up. We'll help you assess your clean-up
- Keep a Household
Mercury Spill Kit in your home, which you can easily access.
Be sure that the Kit you buy, has an effective Mercury Vapor
Suppressant to spray on the mercury along with the usual
safety items such as gloves and goggles. Make sure it has a sealable
container with and adequate amount of Mercury Vapor
Suppressant in it so that waste mercury and broken glass can be
safely taken away for proper disposal.
- In event of a spill,
evacuate and secure the spill area.
- Turn off heat
sources.
- Close doors to the
area, but open outside windows to get fresh air in.
- If the spill is larger
than 1 teaspoon or has gone down a ventilating duct, or cannot be found,
or if in doubt about the extent of the spill - Call your local
Environmental Health Authorities and report the incident.
- If the spill is small, get
ready too clean up the spill, by: (1) removing all jewelry from
hands and wrists, (2) be careful not come into contact with any spilled
mercury area with your footwear or clothing. (3) Read the instructions
of your Mercury Home Spill Kit, and put on the gloves and goggles.
- Spray the elemental
mercury with Mercury Vapor Suppressant (such as MERCON Spray)
to stop the release of HG vapor.
- Use an Aspirator
(small syringe-like evacuation pump)
(such as MERCON Aspirator)
to pick up all visible mercury.
- Release the Hg in
the Aspirator into a sealable plastic container
(such as MERCON Tainer),
carefully closing the container. Proper sealable mercury
containers usually come with mercury vapor suppressant already in them, to
safeguard against any vapor leakage from the container.
- Put the Aspirator,
Container with mercury, and the used gloves and goggles into a double
plastic bag. If any of the shoes or clothing you were wearing came
into contact with any of the mercury, dispose of these as well, by double
bagging them in plastic. Label all disposal bags as "MERCURY
CONTAMINATED HAZARDOUS WASTE'.
- Do not store,
incinerate, or otherwise dispose of any mercury or clean-up residue or
products with household garbage.
- Contact your local
health department to obtain a list of legal and safe disposal sites.
Dispose of all of mercury clean-up items from your spill incident.
- If mercury has been
spilled on carpeting - have that section of carpet removed and disposed of
as a mercury contaminated item.
After cleaning up
- Tell your doctor
about the mercury incident and follow his advice, which, under some
circumstances may mean testing for Hg in your blood and urine, and longer
term follow-up.
- Replace your used
Household Mercury Spill Kit.
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