Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Contact: Sam Brungardt, 651-757-2249 St. Paul, Minn. -- It's 3 a.m. Your two-year-old is crying. Her forehead is hot and you fear she's running a fever. You rush to get a thermometer. You grab one, but in your haste, you drop it. It breaks, and mercury beads shoot across the bathroom floor. Now you've not only got a sick kid, but a potentially health-threatening mercury spill to deal with, too. "Lately we've been advising more people on how to clean up spilled mercury from broken fever thermometers, probably because they're using them more with the advent of cold and flu season," said Lisa Yantachka, an emergency responder with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). "But running the risk of compounding your problems by having a mercury thermometer in the house at all just doesn't make sense." While the vapor given off from spilled mercury is a neurotoxin that can be health threatening if it is inhaled at a high enough concentration or over a long period, mercury spills in the home almost always can be cleaned up so that they do not pose a danger. However, cleaning up a spill properly will take time and considerable care. And cleanup can be expensive; if the mercury is spilled on a carpet, the contaminated portion will have to be cut out and discarded. If it is spilled on a mattress or upholstered chair, the mattress or chair will have to be thrown away. Larger spills or widespread contamination may even require the services of an environmental contractor. "Digital thermometers are now the standard in the health care industry," Yantachka said. "They are as accurate as mercury thermometers, but unlike mercury thermometers, they can't create a health and environmental hazard." Yantachka urges people to replace all the mercury thermometers in their homes - fever and cooking - with digital thermometers and to take their mercury thermometers to their local household hazardous waste facility for proper disposal. Contact information for Minnesota's county household hazardous waste facilities may be found at www.pca.state.mn.us/waste/hhw/hhw-localprograms.html or by calling the MPCA at 651-296-6300 or 1-800-657-3864. If you break a mercury fever thermometer, you can probably clean up the spilled mercury, but you'll need to exercise considerable care, Yantachka said. Immediately after the spill: 1. Isolate the spill and ventilate the area. Keep all people and pets away from the spill area. Open windows and exterior doors. Close all doors between the room where the spill occurred and the rest of the house. Close all cold air returns so that mercury vapor is not carried throughout the house. Turn down heaters and turn up window air conditioners. Turn off central air conditioning. Turn off fans unless they vent to the outdoors. Use fans to blow mercury-contaminated air outside. 2. If mercury has touched your skin shoes, or clothing, stay still and have someone bring you a plastic trash bag and wet paper towels. Wipe off any visible beads of mercury with the wet paper towels and put them in the trash bag. Check your shirt pockets for mercury. Remove contaminated shoes and clothing and place them in the trash bag. Seal the bag and put it in the trash. Shower well. 3. If you feel you've inhaled a lot of mercury vapor, call the Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222. 4. Decide whether you can clean up the spill yourself, which you may be able to do if the spill involved a single fever thermometer on a hard, smooth surface. Call the Minnesota Duty Officer at 1-800-422-0798 to report the spill, any time, day or night. The Duty Officer will put you in touch with an MPCA emergency responder who will advise you on cleaning up the spill. For more information on cleaning up a mercury spill, see the MPCA fact sheet, "Cleaning up spilled mercury in the home," at www.pca.state.mn.us/publications/hhw-mercuryspills.pdf. If you break a fluorescent light, see the "Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Use Them, Recycle Them" fact sheet at www.pca.state.mn.us/publications/w-hhw4-30.pdf.