[SledgeCS]

$2000 for a 4-5mg spill? I remember as a kid playing with the mercury in my dad’s garage. It was in a 4” bottle that had to weight 4-8oz, well that much before us kids found it. I am pretty sure I could move a toolbox or 2 in that garage and still find those little grey balls of mercury against the wall. If I tell my father about the cost there goes my inheritance.

[Retired Chemist]

I don’t know how many mercury spills I’ve cleaned up in my career. There is a special vacuum available for cleaning up the stuff.

[basil]

I was thinking the same thing. As kids, we always seemed to have a supply of mercury to play with. We would use it to shine up dimes and quarters, drip it around on a surface, and then play a game to bring all the litttle balls back together.

After all this exposure to mercury 50 or 60 years ago, I don't seem to be suffering any ill side effects.

[joshhiggins]

My father (now deceased) used to tell how when he was a kid he collected about 50 lbs of mercury from old thermostats and switches and took it to the fourth floor of his school and poured it down the stairs. He said little silver balls of mercury rolled down the hallways, under classroom doors, and could be found rolling around the school for years.

[Minn]

remember as a kid playing with the mercury...

My high school science classrooms (1982) had a bottle of mercury in each lab station cupboard. We played with it all the time.