Life this past week has not been what we had anticipated. On Monday, Hope dropped -and broke- a mercury thermometer (yes, the kind you're not supposed to have anymore) by the bed. In cleaning it up, I found mercury mostly on the hardwood floor, but also a tiny bit on the back of the bed and on the toy box which doubles as a night stand. I never did find the glass "tip" of the thermometer which has led to our current household project: tearing up the floor so we can get access under the heater where there was a crack where glass or mercury could conceivably fall.
The "before" shot
How the room currently looks.
If one were to google "what to do when a mercury thermometer breaks" you will find all kinds of articles on how your home is now a toxic waste site. In cleaning up this mercury, you should wear old clothes, which you will be throwing out along with anything that could have possibly come in contact with the mercury. If we had carpeting, the advice would be to remove it and have it replaced. The articles are filled with stories on how entire families have been poisoned by a single thermometer and small children have been forever harmed.
But yet, I remember playing with mercury from a broken thermometer- my mother showing me how. In our home. Without throwing our clothes away afterwards.
When I called poison control, the lady on the other line advised me to clean it up the best I can and get on with life.
Which now includes tearing up the floor in order to make sure we got it all from around the heater area. Sigh.
2 comments:
How about "Never ingest Vicks" and my mother used to swallow it for a sore throat. How about "Butter on a burn" and Grandma Parks had us put butter on our burns from the heater in the dining room. How about "Don't touch anything when you are in a public restroom...anything!" and did that include not touching the edges of the big or the small hole in the outhouse when we were little? I also recall playing with the mercury from a broken thermometer and never even heard of the poisoning that you are describing. I am so thankful for my online ability to find out the answers now...how would I ever survive without all my knowledge???? Your comments just made my day today...thanks for some reminiscing and a good laugh!
(NOT laughing at your photo of the torn up room...or the clothing you will have to throw out...or the time spent finding the tip of the thermometer...I have had days like that...definitely NOT laughing at your circumstances! Yipps...anyone could drop those little thermometers...done it myself.)Cousin Jan
So Jan, you also played with mercury as a child. I think that might explain a few things...
Thanks for your words of sympathy. I need all I can get :)
By the way- when you said your mom ingested Vicks- did you mean the kind you rub on your chest??!!
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