[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.

[Jim Noble]

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

Are there no psychiatrists?

[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.

[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...

[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!

[Fiddlstix]

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.

Check out this Link

(From The Society of Amateur Scientists )

[ko_kyi]

I read a story about a guy that died of mercury poisoning. He worked in a dental office in a third world country and was obtaining silver by melting/boiling the mercury out of old fillings. The vapors did him in over the course of a couple months, and his house had to be torn down.

Liquid mercury is pretty harmless, I have heard. A science teacher said some people in the middle ages actually drank it as a laxative.

[joesnuffy]

Hg is fun stuff ...one of our neatest and cool elements...
what the heck is wrong with these folks
dont breathe the vapors...dont throw it on a fire....dont eat it....wash your hands after playing with hit..dont play with it too much
you could go blind...
kinds of like a lot of things..
in nature.... M O D E R A T I O N

[Core_Conservative]

Give me a break! I used to break these thing on purpose just to play with the mercury. It never affected me in the least

[TexasRepublic]

JUST DAMN! We are talking about mercury, not plutonium. Political Correctness is the most corrosive and toxic thing that I can think of.