What neutralizes mercury? Solution for Mercury Demercurization

Despite the fact that medical technologies are constantly evolving and electronic medical devices are successfully used at home, a mercury thermometer for measuring body temperature remains the most commonly found home aid. It happens that the thermometer beats, and then there are two questions: "How to remove the contents of the thermometer?"and "What neutralizes mercury?"

Liquid metal

Since childhood, everyone knows that metal is something solid, solid, shiny. The definition of chemical elements belonging to the group of metals was given by Mikhailo Lomonosov two and a half centuries ago. But, as always, almost always, every rule has its own exceptions. So, metals do not always look the way a great Russian scientist should look. Here is mercury. This is the metal that occupies the 80th cell of the table of chemical elements, developed by the great chemist DI Mendeleev. But in the usual conditions for people, mercury is not a solid substance, it is a liquid. And this is the only liquid metal of all that is known to science today.

There are quite a lot to say about the amazing properties of this chemical element. But it is thanks to its qualities that mercury is a special chemical element. Where is mercury used in modern industry, showing its own characteristics? There are a lot of such branches - from a medical thermometer known all to nuclear power engineering.

Mercury at home

The international community has recognized mercury as one of the most aggressive substances polluting nature. But without this chemical element it is impossible to imagine many spheres of human activity. At home, for sure, many people have thermometers, where the indicator of temperature is a column of mercury, fluorescent lamps, whose bulbs are filled with mercury vapor mixed with inert gas, some batteries in mobile phones. By themselves these items are not dangerous, but necessary and useful. But if damaged, they can cause serious health problems for all households. The only question that should be asked if a broken thermometer suddenly appeared at home: "What should I do?"

Such a familiar thermometer

With glass thermometers with a mercury filled thin vacuum bulb - a capillary, and the scale of divisions are familiar from the very childhood. This is the most usual and necessary medical device in any family. Yes, now you can buy electronic thermometers of various shapes - from the intended for babies in the form of nipples to non-contact. But still, the absolute majority of people consider mercury thermometers to be the most accurate and practical. But only a few people think about the danger concealed in the thermometer.

Why, apparently, it was necessary to invent a mercury thermometer, if a substance that helps to measure body temperature is very dangerous? But it was mercury that became the liquid that meets the requirements of accurate temperature measurement, evenly expanding as it increases, rising up the capillary of the thermometer. The mercury thermometer was invented in the 18th century as an improved version of an alcohol thermometer. In our country is taken to read the temperature of the Celsius scale, in the countries of the West and in America the temperature is measured in Fahrenheit. Using a mercury thermometer at home, few people think about answering the question "what neutralizes mercury", if suddenly the thermometer breaks.

Alive and mercury

Mercury has been known to mankind since ancient times. Beautiful, scarlet stones cinnabar - a natural mercury mineral, people mined to get a bright paint, not in vain stone in translation from the ancient Persian called "the blood of the dragon."And already then mercury was used for amalgamation - one of the ways to purify gold. At the same time it was known about the toxic properties of mercury compounds, for example, mercuric chloride, which is still used today as a disinfectant. Mercury is a unique metal, it begins to melt at a temperature of about -39 degrees Celsius. Everyone has heard that she is very poisonous. What is dangerous for a person is mercury from a broken thermometer, you need to clarify.

If mercury enters the open air, it begins to evaporate like water, and active evaporation begins already at 18 degrees Celsius. Vapors of mercury saturate the air in the room, especially if it is not ventilated. And this air becomes dangerous for humans, pets, even indoor plants and fish in the aquarium. The peculiarity of this chemical element is that it is able to accumulate, that is, accumulate, in a living organism, and it is practically impossible to deduce it. Mercury accumulates until a critical limit of its concentration in the body. And at the first stages of such poisoning the symptoms are so weakly expressed that they can be mistaken for fatigue, a mild cold, but not for a serious health problem that is life-threatening.

What's going on?

Mercury is dangerous for all living things, it disrupts metabolic processes, a person feels at first weakness and apathy, which eventually develop into violations of the work of all organs: the kidneys, liver, heart, lungs suffer from excess mercury in the body. Lethal outcome can cause mercury poisoning from the thermometer. Symptoms and consequences of inhaling mercury vapor or, worse, getting mercury into the human body through the mouth can be very scary.

Mercury poisoning, like any other toxic and dangerous substances, can be acute, or can be chronic. Acute poisoning is characterized by headache, vomiting and drooling, pain in the throat and abdomen, swelling and bleeding gums, the body temperature can rise. Acute poisoning manifests itself approximately 2 hours after a significant dose of mercury, which got into the body.

Chronic poisoning is the result of prolonged inhalation of mercury vapors in small concentrations. It often develops in people who once had a mercury thermometer in their homes, but the cleaning and neutralization of the substance were not carried out as it should have been done.

If this happened

A broken thermometer is, it would seem, such a trifle. You just need to collect the shards, remove the mercury balls, well, still wash the floor. But it's not like that at all. A broken mercury thermometer is a serious danger for all households. Mercury vapor poisoning begins as soon as the substance from the sealed glass bulb enters the open air. The question that neutralizes mercury is receding into the background, giving way to the question of how to assemble it. The sweeping begins, the vacuum cleaner is connected, wet rags. But what people usually do to clean up is strictly prohibited, removing the broken thermometer.

Mercury is a liquid, and to collect it, say, as plasticine, it will not work, and it is impossible to wipe it with dry cloths. From the impact, which breaks the capsule thermometer, the substance breaks up into tiny particles that scatter around the room. The work of a broom only exacerbates the situation, since branches of sorghum or synthetic bristles crush mercury balls into even smaller parts. The vacuum cleaner will not help either, since, on the one hand, it removes mercury, and on the other hand, along with the exhausted air in the form of a tiny dust sends back to the entire room, besides, the mercury-removing vacuum cleaner will then have to be disposed of, since it is cleaned of the smallest particlesMercury, hammered into all the details, will not work.

With wet rags, mercury can not be removed, but the particles of the substance that has begun its poisoning work can get into the cracks of the floor, in the wool fibers of the carpet. If in the room where the thermometer broke, there is a carpet or carpet on the floor, then it is easier to dispose of them by wrapping them in a tight plastic bag and taking them out of the room. But from the floor mercury balls are most conveniently cleaned with a conventional medical pear, collecting mercury in a glass jar.

Cleaning the broken mercury thermometer in steps

If there is a broken thermometer, what should I do? The answer to this question will consist of the following recommendations:

• Remove from the room, and preferably from the apartment, all household members, including animals, for a walk, until the cleaning is complete.
• Close the door of the room.
• Open all windows wide. The influx of cold air will keep active evaporation of mercury and will reduce its concentration.
• Wear a medical mask, or better a respirator, and rubber gloves, change into clothes, which it will not be a shame to part with after cleaning.
• Prepare a medical pear - syringe, a glass jar with a tightly twisting lid, potassium permanganate or chlorine, cold water.
• Turn on bright lights, as mercury is a shiny metal, and it will be clearly visible in bright light.
• Mercury balls are most conveniently collected by sucking them with a syringe and lowering them into a jar;this medical item is easier to extract mercury from the cracks in the floor and under the skirting boards. There are recommendations for cleaning mercury with metal wire, sheets of paper, but mercury constantly rolls down and crumbles into small droplets with the slightest careless movement, so there is nothing more comfortable than syringing at home.
• After the mercury is collected, the place where the thermometer was broken should be treated with a concentrated solution of disinfectants - potassium permanganate or bleach, diluting them with cold water.
• A jar of collected mercury, a syringe, fragments of a broken thermometer, gauze bandage, a respirator, clothes should be carried to the SES, where they must be accepted for recycling. You can not throw these things out in the trash.

What neutralizes mercury?

Mercury is a dangerous substance for living matter. It belongs to the 1st class of danger in accordance with the normative document - GOST 17.4.1.02-83.A solution for mercury demercurization on an industrial scale is sulfur powder. He enters into a chemical reaction with the metal, turning it into a non-volatile compound - mercury sulphide. This substance is easy enough to remove, because it is solid, unlike the liquid metal itself, striving to scatter from any touch on small balls.

At home, there is rarely a sulfur powder for cleaning a broken mercury thermometer. But mercury and manganese, or mercury and chlorine-containing detergents will neutralize harmful liquid metal. Yes, it is best to remove mercury first as carefully as possible, and then treat all the surfaces in the room with chlorine or manganese. The floor can simply be filled with a concentrated solution of chlorine-containing detergent, for example, for disinfection of the toilet bowls. Re-cleaning "clean" is best done in a day.

Which is better - bleach or manganese?

It's only in the movies-catastrophes or action-tales that a hero appears who rescues all and eliminates inevitable death. In life in any critical situation, it's best to do everything yourself and carefully, not counting on outside help, because only in large cities there are services professionally engaged in disposing of domestic household waste problems and cleaning the premises in accordance with the danger that has arisen. To independently get rid of the dangerous consequences of the broken thermometer, it is best to use improvised means no less effective than the means of specialists.

You can neutralize mercury residues with potassium permanganate or bleach. Solutions should be concentrated, which means they are sufficiently caustic. In 1 liter of solution of potassium permanganate, 1 tablespoon of acetic essence should be added and 1 tablespoon of common salt added. Manganese for cleaning will have a practically black tint, and it will necessarily leave indelible marks on the floor surface. It is more convenient and easier to use chlorine-containing products for cleaning and disinfection at home, the same "Belize" for example. This means treat the surface after mercury for 15 minutes, then rinse with clean water. This cleaning should be repeated as often as possible within 2-3 weeks.

For complete peace of mind

So, the mercury thermometer all the same broke. But demercurization was carried out correctly, carefully, all dangerous things were disposed of by rules into a special organization dealing with similar problems. And to calm yourself and your family, you can use a special mercury vapor analyzer to check the result. It is a test strip, which when exposed to mercury vapor changes color. This is a cheaper and affordable way to check the safety of the premises than to call in specialists to conduct such a survey at home. Instructions for using test strips are attached to each set of the analyzer, and you can purchase it in specialized stores.