Fever is the most important symptom of people infected with the new coronavirus, and measuring body temperature has become the main monitoring method to observe changes in the condition. When using a mercury thermometer, if you swing the thermometer too hard and hit a hard object, or if it slips and falls during measurement, the thermometer may be broken and the mercury may be spilled. How should we deal with this?
Mercury is the common name for metallic mercury, which is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. When the thermometer is broken and the mercury falls to the ground, it will form many small silver balls of different sizes. If not collected and processed in time, they will quickly evaporate into the air and turn into mercury vapor. Mercury vapor is very toxic. Inhaling high concentrations of mercury vapor (greater than 1.0mg/m³) in a short period of time can lead to acute mercury poisoning, manifested by dizziness, headache, fatigue, fever, etc.
How to deal with a broken thermometer?
- Immediately clean up the mercury beads scattered on the ground or on the surface of objects. You can use paper or thin plastic plates to collect the mercury beads and put them into plastic or glass bottles. Broken thermometers can be put into the package together. Tighten the bottle cap, make a "broken thermometer" mark and put it into hazardous waste.
- Personnel should try not to stay in the room where the thermometer was broken. Open the windows and ventilate the room for two days before the mercury vapor in the room can reach a safe level.
Can a broken thermometer release mercury
and cause acute poisoning in humans?
A standard mercury thermometer used daily contains about 1g of mercury. If all the mercury evaporates after being broken, the air mercury concentration in a room with an area of 15 square meters and a height of 3 meters can reach 22.2mg/m³. my country's ambient air quality standard stipulates that the safety limit of mercury vapor concentration is 50ng/m³, so mercury spilled from broken thermometers must be handled carefully. But there is no need to panic. If scattered mercury beads can be collected in time and windows are opened for a certain period of time for ventilation, they will not have any health effects on the human body.
Judging from past clinical practice, broken thermometers will not cause severe poisoning.
Source: CCTV News
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-