Posted on 09/06/2007 5:11:22 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
A mercury spill on the south side of Fargo’s South High School put the school into a lockdown for more than an hour this afternoon.
A thermometer was broken in a medical careers class and some mercury was released, said Superintendent Rick Buresh, who was at the scene. He said it didn’t appear anyone was injured.
However, a teacher and two students were kept for decontamination, Fargo Fire Capt. Gary Lorenz said.
(Excerpt) Read more at in-forum.com ...
They’ll declare Martial Law if someone microwaves a bag of popcorn.
Lockdown and decon for a broken thermometer, and a felony rap for a Swiss Army knife...gee, I’m glad I went to school when I did.
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be surprised if were an anal thermometer which was broken during an alternative lifestyle class, causing the uproar.
So that is where the rectal thermometer went.
We played with it, as well. My dad used to get some on the job once in awhile and bring it home for us to play with. He used to tell us not to handle it "too much" because you could get poisoned through the skin, but we rolled it around in the palms of our hands, and we're all still here. Mercury's loads of fun to horse around with. Fascinating stuff; my dad would tell us that it was both a liquid and a solid.
We broke thermometers to play with the really neat silver stuff. Then it was used to fill our teeth.
Yes, the teacher is an idiot to for freaking out. Reminds me of the woman in Maine who called a decon team to clean up her house because she broke a flourescent tuebe. They soaked her pocket book, as they shoudl have! If your going to be stupid, you’ve got to be tough!
[This is ridiculous. Elemental mercury poses no risk to health.]
Care to post some source for this comment?
Are you serious? There was mercury in those mazes? LOL
Like my geological play on words? Lead - as in as in Galena (PbS
This should employ at least a dozen useless, idiot bureaucrats and justify their $75,000 annual salary. If somehow the moron writer could have documented some endangered species getting the sniffles, he would be in line for a Pulitzer prize.
We broke thermometers to play with the really neat silver stuff. Then it was used to fill our teeth.
The American educational system is run by hysterical knee jerk fools.
Oh God! Oh God! We’re all gonna die!
I did it in High school, and both of my kids really enjoyed playing with it in High school. More things to ‘thank’ the lib whackos for.
I can do that through logic...other than Hatters, and Miners (red devil mine - Alaska and gold miners who were insistent upon using Mercury retorts indoors) Show me people dyng of Mercury poisoning? Been eating fish all my life, and I’m still here at 50+.
I was looking for a reference and could not find one- but I seem to remember that in Mexico, at least up to the 70’s, they’d give a drop of metallic mercury to babies for colic or some other gastro disturbance.
Here is the info I was looking for. Giving oral metallic Hg to cure gastroenteritis. The article mentions a USA clinic treating a Mexican baby, and they saw a drop of mercury in the child’s diaper. Can’t get the whole text but the enterprising web searcer may scour it up:
1: Clin Pediatr (Phila). 1980 Jun;19(6):435-7. Related Articles, Links
Oral metallic mercury. A folk medicine remedy for gastroenteritis.
Geffner ME, Sandler A.
Publication Types:
* Case Reports
MeSH Terms:
* Female
* Gastroenteritis/drug therapy*
* Hispanic Americans*
* Humans
* Infant
* Medicine, Traditional*
* Mercury/therapeutic use*
* Mexico/ethnology
Substances:
* Mercury
PMID: 7371357 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Oh boy, never got that far.
Tastes better than brass, imho.
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