Mercury prompts thermometer call

Washington Times ^ | Shayla Bennett

[AFPhys]

The D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department is encouraging District residents to get rid of thermometers containing mercury, to prevent future incidents of mercury poisoning from spills of the type that occurred at Ballou High School in Southeast.

Under a program set up over the past weekend, residents can drop off old thermometers at Engine 12 fire station on the corner of Fifth Street and Rhode Island Avenue NE between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

[AFPhys]

"... They are not breaking any laws by having these old thermometers..." ... Lord, Save us!

I can't believe these dopes. Someone on the other thread from a couple days ago called us a nation of Chemophobes. I have to agree

I used to play with this stuff constantly, as did some others on the earlier thread:

Earlier thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/999146/posts

It is still one of the most benign elements on God's earth, and one of the most interesting and safe things to show children ... but these chemophobes are seemingly hopeless.

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[snopercod]

Isn't this mass-hysteria fascinating?

All we need now is a congressional hearing with Meryl Streep shouting "WHAT ARE WE DOING TO THE CHILDREN!?!

[AFPhys]

Strela: I tasted it, too... as has been pointed out by several, it is in fillings!

Batrachian: You really should not be afraid to touch it. Just don't eat mercury citrate, acetate, etc... or other organic compounds, and you will be just fine. --- feel free to wash your hands when you're done with it, too... and if you drop it from a great height and it becomes many many little globs, air the place out- but you can't get much into the air by just exposing a big blob of it to air - the vapor pressure is very low (not much will get into air easily)

GOPcapitalist: you CAN drink the stuff without much chance of harm, as I recall... I think it is extremely inert, and very little would be absorbed by your body --- but, I have to admit that I would draw the line here. You are right, though... we have the death of common sense.

[palmer]

I had a test tube full as a kid. After all my experiments I had half a test tube and my hands were stained black.

[AFPhys]

One of my earliest "science projects" was to recreate Torricelli's mercury barometer. It requires about a 30 inch column of mercury (imagine that!) in a slightly longer glass tube sealed at one end, and a bowl of mercury sufficient to fill it and keep the open end bathed in. It worked wonderfully, and was a great demo. If I brought that same experiment to school now, I would probably be arrested as a chemical terrorist, according to this story, since they are calling in the "environmental crimes unit" to investigate.

We have GOT to get off this planet! The most important reason for space flight is to have people get things into perspective once again.

[8mmMauser]

Guess I should have been dead long ago. We kids all had great fun playing with mercury. Roll the little balls in your hand and it leaves a blackish stain. Rub it on a dime (silver, of course,) and it shines like nothing else, but the shine fades.

Later we all got mouthfuls of mercury in the fillings for our teeth.

Wonder how many of us are dead or worse from being poisoned beyond belief.

[8mmMauser]

Guess I should have been dead long ago. We kids all had great fun playing with mercury. Roll the little balls in your hand and it leaves a blackish stain. Rub it on a dime (silver, of course,) and it shines like nothing else, but the shine fades.

Later we all got mouthfuls of mercury in the fillings for our teeth.

Wonder how many of us are dead or worse from being poisoned beyond belief.

[Jim Noble]

if they feel uncomfortable by having the items they can turn them in to the fire station

Are there no psychiatrists?

[palmer]

Medical "science" says you are dead but mercury can be easily removed through means such as chelation therapy. Mercury is probably beneficial in tiny amounts just like arsenic and radiation.

[Moose4]

Got to love those liberals and their thermometer buyback programs. Next we'll have a five-day waiting period to buy thermometers.

And just how many millions of children, over the years, had a mercury thermometer jammed in their mouths (or worse, up their nether regions) to take their temperature? The horror, the horror...

}:-)4

[apillar]

My dad was an electrician and was constantly getting old mercury switches from renovated buildings. He would break them open and pour the mercury into a can on his work bench.

After he passed away, we were sorting through some of his things and found that can of mercury back in the back of a closet.

I'm not really sure what to do with it, I've had it out in my shed for the last 3 years. It's the size of a large coffee can and about half full. It probably weighs about 20 pounds.

[DH]

Next thing you know they will be offering to pay $5.00 for each can or bottle of dangerous chemicals stored under your kitchen sink. They will call it the "Draino buy-back" program and Mr. Yuck will be their logo.

Eventually, the government will protect us from ourselves to the point that we will never die.

[AnAmericanMother]

Oh, just take it out and play with it from time to time. :-D

It won't hurt you. My mom always made us wash our hands after we played with the stuff, and that's probably a good idea.

[metesky]

Fifty years ago we used to break thermometers for the mercury. We rolled little balls of it around on our school desks and coated pennies with it so we could pass them off as dimes to the penny candy store owner that was screwing us on the count.

[Darksheare]

Heck, I have a dead mercury switch from an old thermostat that I shake up once in awhile and watch the stuff jiggle and thud in the ends of the tube.
Cripes, how stupid are people these days?
On second thought, don't answer that...

[Darksheare]

Having their temperature taken with a mercury filled thermometer!!
The horros and torment!
They will all need to have personal therapists, at taxpayer expense of course, to lead a normal life again!
(At least until they don't need Ritalin, Valium, Lithium, Paxil, Xanax, Docepin, or Wellbutrin to get through school..)

*snort*

I'm laughing my butt off here.
These guys panicking are rather entertaining... if only it wasn't so typical of the thinking these days.

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

When I was a kid, my dad accidentally broke a mercury thermometer. He let me come over and we played with it for a while, it was really fun. We were careful to keep the dog away, and washed our hands when we were through.

I can't believe people are so terrified of what is, in the overall scheme of things, a fairly innocuous substance.

[WorkingClassFilth]

"At the close of business the first day we only had one thermometer turned in, but we want people to know it is OK to turn things in..."

They can have my mercury thermometers when they pry them from my cold, dead hands!

[AFPhys]

ROFL!!!