Mercury Disposal

[bobbyspangles]

We broke an old mercury thermometer in my Physics class once. After playing with it for 20 minutes without the teacher knowing, he came along swept it into is hand and then straight in to the paper bin.

 

[kindai]

We broke an old mercury thermometer in my Physics class once. After playing with it for 20 minutes without the teacher knowing, he came along swept it into is hand and then straight in to the paper bin.

Mercury in its pure form is surprisingly safe... is when it mixes with other things you gotta be careful...

 

[Ahleckz]

for such a small amount just chuck it in the bin - it really isn't that dangerous.

This. It's really not worth the bother.

 

[acemastr]

Mercury in its pure form is surprisingly safe... is when it mixes with other things you gotta be careful...

It doesn't get absorbed through skin very quickly so it's not too much of a problem

 

[Mynight]

I thought it was only really dangerous inhaling the stuff. There was an experiment where people ingested it and it passed through with only a small amount being absorbed.



And there was this woman who tried to kill herself injecting 10ml (135g compared to ~3G in a thermonitor) of it survived with only short term effects;

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200006153422405

 

[Aod]

How big is it? I'll happily take it off your hands as a curio

 

[Antar Bolaeisk]

unlikely lol
Fair shout, I'll do that at the weekend.

Funny that a doorbell here has a mercury tilt switch. Growing up in NI I once tried to get one for a technology project. It took about 3 months to get clearance lol.

Yeah, a "technology project"

 

["andy"]

To quote an old member who's name escapes me....

Put it through someones letterbox and shout "Are you John Connor?"

a legendary post from legendary times