When I was a kid mercury was a common toy, it was fun to play with. I understand that we know better now. But come on, a teeny tiny bit in the school and now the whole school has to be contaminated?
Someone broke an old thermometer and it’s hair on fire at a Las Vegas Middle school. Same thing happened to my wife were she works. It was a government building downtown, three hazmat teams were stationed in and around the building–one group looked like they were in full bio warfare gear from the cell phone pic my wife sent me. There were cop cars everywhere, they turned off the HVAC system–in July in 109 degree heat index. Two full shower decontamination stations were set up. Building on lockdown for over 6 hours. None of the people inside the building were told what was happening. What was the issue? Someone opened an old metal tool box that had a leaking BP cuff inside. There was four–count them FOUR–beads of mercury in the bottom of the box. The person called 911 and all hell broke loose.
This makes no sense. Keep the students locked up in a contaminated environment? I would figure the proper response would be to evacuate the students to a clean location and screen them from there. But I suppose they were afraid the students would track mercury into other locations.
I don’t quite understand the seriousness of these responses to mercury exposure. This happens every time someone breaks a CFL light bulb. The manufacturers say to open the windows and let the mercury evaporate, no hazmat response required.
But jeez, we used to play with mercury back when I was in high school. We even had experiments in chemistry class, like floating metal weights in a jar of mercury. I remember when someone spilled a jar on the floor, the teacher swept all the little globules together with a paper card. He was mostly pissed off that his mercury was contaminated with dirt from the floor and no longer suitable for chemistry experiments.
Attitudes have changed over the years. I recall reading a story on the web from a chemistry professor. He described how long ago, they used to haze new chemistry grad students by taking them out for drinks, then conning them into chugging a beer with an inch of mercury in the bottom. He said it would run right through their intestines in minutes, and leak out their anus, giving them a pantload of mercury. Eventually they’d feel this odd sensation and think they wet themselves. But instead of urine, they’d discover all that mercury. Oh the hilarity!