This is ridiculous. Elemental mercury poses no risk to health.
[This is ridiculous. Elemental mercury poses no risk to health.]
Care to post some source for this comment?
My experiences mirror those of many here. I played with mercury on a number of occasions as a child. I have a set of mercury carb stix in my garage (for balancing carbs on four cylinder bikes) that contains a good ounce (weight) at least of mercury. I suppose a small amount of it is steadily vaporizing and in the air of the garage, and maybe the rest of the house. I’m not aware of having any adverse affects from the above. The worst case may be when it’s spilled in an area where the same people are resident all the time, due to the increased surface area for vaporization and the risk of long-term exposure.
Anyway, the MSDS for liquid elemental mercury is pretty scary, if you believe those things. They tend to make the worst of things: http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/M1599.htm
No freaking doubt. Perhaps there would be some concern if they poured it into an atomizer and sprayed it around a room, but a tiny amount on the floor is certainly not something to evacuate a school over.