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What do I do about mercury spills?


My little brother who is 4 years old accidentally dropped a thermometer and unfortunately, spilled the red stuff in it which I think is called mercury. All I know is that it is bad for you if you get near or in contact with a person. My little brother got 2 drops of mercury onto his face and I immediately got soap and cleansed his face with it. (Rubbed it with soap for a repetitive times until the weird smell was gone) I wiped off the mercury and removed the broken glasses. The problem is what should I do? Is my brother infected or something? What should I do to prevent any sickness in the house?Please Help Me!

The red liquid inside the thermometer smelled like some car gas engine oil or something.

If it's red, it's NOT mercury. Mercury is silver. If you broke it it would not pool it would "break" into little balls. The red fluid in thermometers is alcohol, it's usually methanol. Not sure what the clean up rule is with methanol but you don't need to worry about mercury poisoning.

Poison control!
However if the thermometer isn't years and years old then it probably doesn't have mercury in it.. they don't make thermometers with mercury anymore.
You can find your poison control number in your phone book.

If someone gets mercury poison or ingests it there are certain ways to get rid of it, not a home remedy though. it includes something with charcoal because it binds the mercery so you can get it out of your body.
so call poison control just in case

Call poison control, now!
You can look up the center here: http://www.aapcc.org/findyour.htm

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