HG – Mercury and Me

Good Morning,

 Recently there was an “incident” at Aqua Fria High School in Avondale, AZ where a couple of students got a hold of some Mercury in a class room. (Not sure why it wasn’t locked up) and apparently not knowing what it was, (huh?) played with it, showed it to friends in several different places throughout the school including the Bus #72, and then eventually at home.

CLink: http://www.kpho.com/health/18709351/detail.html

 What ensued when someone called 911, was an incredible effort by a plethora of agencies to clean up the mess.  

 The results:

• Sending students to the hospital that had touched the Mercury
• Shutting down the entire school
• Stripping the walls down to the studs in the offending classroom
• Cleanup of lockers where Mercury might have been
• Vacuuming sidewalks with special equipment
• Requiring all students that came in contact with the two students to turn in the clothing and backpacks for inspection before being allowed to return to school
• Hazardous Chemical crews to cleanup the houses where the students lived

 This is the short list as I am certain there is much, much more.  

 Now, I’m not advocating that it is ok to let Mercury run from your hands into your friends hands or even to play with it on the kitchen table like my sister and I did as a kids.  Also called Quicksilver, it moves very fast and comes apart and back together much like the T-1000 (played by Robert Patrick) in the sci-fi movie Terminator 2.  It was always a bummer when it went too fast across the table, off of the edge and hit the floor.  Because, it is a liquid, (the only metal that is, at room temperature) it would splatter all over the darn place and then it seemed that it would take us forever to find and gather the most of it back up.  Never could find it all as those little balls rolled under things.

 As a teenager and playing with model trains and the occasional bomb as well, I found mercury switches to be handy for all kinds of things.  It is also referred to as a tip switch for when something is moved or tipped the switch could close or open depending on how it is positioned.  I needed to sense positions in some of my model railroad accessories to create automation and for them to serve that purpose.  Getting them was another problem because they were expensive.  I decided to make my own.  So I went to the local drug store and purchased a box of pill capsules, the gel kind, empty and a pound bottle of Mercury.  Just try and buy a box of empty pill capsules today and you can pretty much forget about the Mercury without some type of permit.  Besides the last time I checked, some places it was going for about $493.00 for 4 ounces.  Lets see… 4 X 4 = 16oz or just about $1,882.00 a pound.  Maybe, I should sell that bottle.  Anyway, I made the switches and a few other things and I’m sure I played with it as well.  Fun stuff that.

 Times have changed and Mercury as a toy has gone the way of lead paint on toys, high chairs and baby cribs, all of which were part of my youth.  I suppose I should consider myself lucky to have survived those times and to have lived this long.  I am certainly glad that the HAZMAT crew didn’t have to tear our house apart down to the studs like the Aqua Fria High School or haul away the dirt under the kitchen floor to remove the mercury that surely found its way there.

 I wonder if I should have the amalgams used in my dental work removed from my mouth that have been there since I was in my teens.  Na, there probably isn’t that much Mercury left in them anyway after all these years and most of the damage has been done by now.

 So what was the point of this letter?  It is just an observation, for I think there are times when we as a society, tend to go a little “over-the-top” with self-imposed hysteria and our perceived evaluation of real risk.  Life is risky, no doubt about it.  It is risky just getting up in the morning.  But how much risk is allowed and from where, is my point.  Walk outside and you have a better chance, 18-1 of being struck by lighting and killed, than winning the lottery.  Still risky, sure, but how much, yet some will buy a lottery ticket every week. 

 So should I call 911 when I drop that compact fluorescent bulb on the floor while trying to save a half percent on my electric bill or say, “I don’t need no stinking HAZMAT Crew”, I’ve been exposed to a lot more than that in my life.  Yes there is Mercury in CFLs and it will be a CDH, if I ever put one in my house.

 It’s tough out there, so be careful, for you never know what we will find out about, that we should not have been doing, years ago.  For me that was probably a lot of things.

 Love, Dad

 Disclaimer: Let it be understood that in no way am I advocating that Mercury should be used as a toy or that handling such material is not hazardous.  Just because I did it, doesn’t mean you have to.  Mercury should only be handled by professionals trained in hazardous materials.  Professional driver closed course, do not attempt.  Professional stuntman, do not attempt. Doctor portrayed by actor.  That should about do it, so I don’t get sued by someone who was dumb like me and has no common sense.