Broken Mercury Thermometer, CFL Bulb, and Fluorescent Tube Cleanup¶

Dropping an antique glass fever thermometer on a bathroom floor, shattering a linear fluorescent shop-light tube in a garage, or breaking a spiral Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) in a child's bedroom releases elemental mercury (\(Hg\)) into your living space. Unlike any other metal on earth, elemental mercury is a dense, silvery liquid at room temperature that evaporates continuously into an invisible, odorless, tasteless mercury vapor. While intact skin absorbs very little liquid mercury from a brief touch, the human lungs absorb roughly 80 percent of all inhaled mercury vapor directly into the bloodstream, where it crosses the blood-brain barrier and the placenta to attack the central nervous system and kidneys.

What turns a small household mercury spill into a permanent, multi-thousand-dollar home contamination disaster is how a homeowner cleans it up during the first ten minutes. Reaching for a household vacuum cleaner, a robotic vacuum, or a stiff broom is the single worst error you can make: when liquid mercury strikes the floor, it shatters into hundreds of microscopic spheres (micro-beads). A broom scatters those micro-beads into every floorboard crack, and a vacuum cleaner sucks the mercury across its hot electric motor housing, heating and vaporizing the mercury into a toxic gas cannon that spikes indoor air concentrations 100-fold while permanently contaminating the vacuum cleaner so every future room you vacuum receives a dose of mercury vapor. Taking disciplined action right now, clearing children, pregnant women, and pets out of the room, turning off your central heating or air conditioning (HVAC) system, opening an exterior window to vent the room for 15 minutes before entering, and using stiff index cards, sticky duct tape, and an eyedropper under a sideways flashlight beam, eliminates the hazard safely without spreading vapor.

Fai ʻeni he taimí ni .¶

1. Evacuate all people and pets from the room immediately, walking carefully around the spill zone. Have everyone step out of the room without walking through the broken glass or silvery beads. If anyone stood near the impact when the thermometer or bulb shattered, inspect the bottoms of their shoes and socks immediately before they walk across the rest of the house; if shoe soles have touched the spill area, take those shoes off right at the doorway and place them on a plastic trash bag.
2. Shut off your central heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system and portable room heaters. Walk to your wall thermostat and switch your central furnace or air conditioner blower fan from "Auto" or "On" to OFF. Elemental mercury evaporates exponentially faster as room temperature rises; turning off the heat both lowers the room temperature (slowing mercury vaporization) and prevents the HVAC return ducts from sucking mercury vapor out of the spill room and circulating it into bedrooms.
3. Open a window or exterior door to the outdoors and close the interior room door for 10 to 15 minutes. Before you kneel down on the floor to pick up a single piece of glass or mercury bead, open an exterior window in the room (and turn on a bathroom or kitchen exhaust fan only if it vents directly outdoors, never into an attic or recirculating hood), then step out, close the interior door to the rest of the house, and seal the bottom door gap with a towel. Let fresh outdoor air dilute the initial puff of mercury vapor for at least 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Never pour recovered mercury down a sink drain, flush it down a toilet, or wash mercury-contaminated clothing in a washing machine. Elemental mercury is 13.5 times heavier than water. If you dump mercury beads down a sink or toilet, the dense liquid metal sinks straight to the bottom of the U-shaped plumbing P-trap underneath your sink, where it sits forever, slowly off-gassing toxic mercury vapor back up through the drain strainer into your bathroom while poisoning municipal wastewater treatment systems.
5. Gather your non-sparking manual cleanup kit before re-entering the room. While the room airs out for 15 minutes, assemble: nitrile or rubber gloves (never bare hands, and remove gold or silver rings and watches first because mercury instantly dissolves into gold and silver jewelry to form a permanent dull grey amalgam), two stiff index cards or playing cards, an eyedropper or plastic oral medicine syringe, duct tape or wide packing tape, damp paper towels, a bright flashlight, two wide-mouth glass jars with tight metal screw lids (or heavy zip-top plastic bags), and elemental sulfur powder (optional, from a garden store or pharmacy).
6. Check the size of the mercury spill to decide if professional hazmat response is required. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a homeowner can safely clean up a broken CFL or fluorescent tube (1 to 5 milligrams of mercury) or one broken household fever thermometer (500 to 700 milligrams of mercury, roughly the size of a single green pea or pencil eraser) using the manual steps below. If you spilled MORE than the amount in one fever thermometer (such as a broken antique mercury barometer, blood-pressure sphygmomanometer, tilt-switch furnace thermostat, grandfather clock pendulum, or bottle of lab mercury), do NOT attempt DIY cleanup: keep the room sealed and call your local fire department hazmat team, state environmental agency, or Poison Control (1-800-222-1222 in the United States).

Mercury and fluorescent bulb emergency cleanup decision tree¶

Use this step-by-step triage flowchart to choose the exact containment and cleanup protocol based on which mercury-containing item broke and how much mercury was released.

flowchart TD
    Start["Broken Mercury Item or Fluorescent Bulb Indoors"] --> Evac["1. Clear People & Pets from Room;<br/>Check Shoe Soles at Doorway"]
    Evac --> HVAC["2. Turn OFF Central HVAC System & Heaters;<br/>Open Outdoor Window & Close Interior Door"]
    HVAC --> VentWait["3. Ventilate Room to Outdoors for 10 to 15 Minutes<br/>Before Entering to Clean"]
    VentWait --> SizeCheck{"4. What item broke?"}

    SizeCheck -->|"A. Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL)<br/>or Linear Fluorescent Tube (1 to 5 mg Hg)"| BulbClean["CFL / Fluorescent Tube Protocol:<br/>Scoop glass & white phosphor powder with stiff cardboard;<br/>dab surface with sticky duct tape;<br/>wipe hard floor with damp paper towel"]
    SizeCheck -->|"B. Single Glass Fever or Cooking<br/>Thermometer (0.5 to 1.0 gram Hg)"| ThermSurface{"What surface did liquid<br/>mercury beads land on?"}
    SizeCheck -->|"C. Barometer, Blood Pressure Manometer,<br/>Thermostat Bulb, or Vial (>1 gram / >pea-size)"| MajorHazmat["LARGE MERCURY SPILL (Professional Hazmat Only):<br/>Keep room closed & vented outdoors;<br/>call Fire Dept Hazmat, State EPA, or Poison Control"]

    ThermSurface -->|"Hard non-porous floor<br/>(Tile, vinyl, sealed wood, linoleum)"| HardMercury["Hard Floor Bead Collection:<br/>Darken room & shine flashlight at 10-degree floor angle;<br/>herd beads together with index cards;<br/>suck into eyedropper & dab micro-beads with tape"]
    ThermSurface -->|"Porous carpet, area rug,<br/>or upholstered fabric"| CarpetMercury["Porous Carpet Containment:<br/>NEVER vacuum; cut out contaminated section<br/>of carpet/rug, double-bag, and dispose as hazardous waste"]

    BulbClean --> SealJar["5. Seal Debris, Tape, Cards, and Gloves in Glass Jar or Double Zip-Top Bags"]
    HardMercury --> SulfurDust["Optional: Dust floor cracks with yellow elemental sulfur powder<br/>to bind invisible residue and monitor color change"]
    SulfurDust --> SealJar
    CarpetMercury --> SealJar
    SealJar --> FinalVent["6. Keep Window Open & HVAC Off for 24 Hours;<br/>Deliver Jar to Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Facility"]

Identifying the spill: how much mercury is inside household items?¶

Before you panic over a broken thermometer or light bulb, you need to know two facts first: Does my broken thermometer actually contain mercury at all? and How much mercury is inside the device that broke?

1. Silver liquid vs. red/blue/black liquid in thermometers¶

Nearly all household fever, meat, candy, refrigerator, and outdoor thermometers sold in the United States, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Australia since the early 2000s are mercury-free:

• If the liquid inside the broken thermometer is RED, BLUE, PURPLE, or GREEN: Your thermometer does NOT contain mercury. Colored thermometer liquids are made of harmless dyed alcohol (ethanol), kerosene/petroleum distillate, or citrus-based organic oil. You can clean up a red or blue thermometer exactly like any ordinary broken glass spill using a damp paper towel and soap.
• If the liquid is silvery-white, metallic, and metallic-gray: It is either elemental mercury (\(Hg\)) (found in older pre-2005 thermometers and antique instruments) OR a modern non-toxic Galinstan alloy (a liquid alloy of gallium, indium, and tin used in newer "mercury-free" glass thermometers, which is usually labeled "Geratherm" or "Ga-In-Sn / Mercury-Free" on the thermometer stem).
• How to tell real Mercury apart from harmless Galinstan on the floor: Real elemental mercury has extreme surface tension: it never wets glass or tile, and instead forms perfect, convex, frictionless round silver ball bearings that roll across the floor at the slightest touch without leaving a smear. Galinstan wets surfaces like wet silver paint, smearing across glass and floor tiles rather than rolling into neat beads. If in doubt, always treat any silver liquid metal as elemental mercury.

2. Mercury content comparison across common household items¶

Protocol A: Step-by-step cleanup for a broken CFL or fluorescent tube¶

When a Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) or long fluorescent shop tube shatters, about 10 to 30 percent of its tiny 1-to-5-milligram mercury dose escapes into the air as vapor during the first few hours, while the remaining 70 to 90 percent stays stuck to the white phosphor powder clinging to the broken glass shards. Follow the official US EPA cleanup sequence:

Step 1: Before cleanup (The 15-Minute Air-Out)¶

1. Have all people and pets leave the room without stepping on the broken glass area.
2. Open a window or exterior door to the outdoors.
3. Shut off the central forced-air heating or air conditioning (HVAC) system.
4. Close the interior room door and leave the room empty for 10 to 15 minutes so the initial release of mercury vapor vents outside.

Step 2: Cleanup on hard surfaces (Tile, hardwood, vinyl, linoleum)¶

1. Put on disposable nitrile or rubber gloves (never pick up phosphor-coated glass with bare hands).
2. Scoop, do not sweep: Use two pieces of stiff cardboard, index cards, or a stiff plastic squeegee to scoop up all visible glass fragments and white phosphor powder, sliding them carefully into a glass jar with a metal screw lid (or a heavy-duty sealable plastic container).
3. Pat with sticky duct tape: Tear off strips of sticky duct tape or wide packing tape and press the sticky side gently over the entire 1.5-meter (5-foot) radius around the break to pick up invisible glass splinters and fine white phosphor dust. Place used tape strips into the glass jar.
4. Wet-wipe the hard floor: Wipe the area thoroughly with damp paper towels or disposable wet baby wipes (using one pass per fold) to capture any remaining microscopic powder, and place the used wet towels into the jar.

Step 3: Cleanup on carpets or rugs (If a CFL broke over carpet)¶

1. Scoop up all large glass pieces using stiff cardboard and pat the carpet fibers repeatedly with sticky duct tape to lift glass splinters and white powder out of the nap.
2. Do NOT vacuum the carpet during initial cleanup. Keep the room window open and the central HVAC system off for several hours.
3. Future vacuuming precaution: According to the US EPA, the next several times you vacuum that carpet after the spill has fully aired out, shut the interior room door, open the room's exterior window, vacuum the area, and immediately remove the vacuum bag outdoors (or empty the canister into a sealed trash bag outdoors) and wash your hands.

Protocol B: Step-by-step cleanup for a broken liquid mercury thermometer¶

Cleaning up liquid elemental mercury from a broken glass thermometer requires far greater precision than a CFL bulb because a single fever thermometer contains 100 to 500 times more mercury than a CFL bulb, and liquid mercury shatters on impact into tiny rolling beads that travel up to 3 to 5 meters (10 to 16 feet) across a hard floor.

Step 1: Preparation and the "Flashlight Grazing Angle" search¶

1. After ventilating the room to the outdoors with the HVAC off for 15 minutes, remove all gold, silver, and platinum rings, bracelets, and watches from your hands and wrists (mercury amalgamates instantly and permanently with precious metals), and put on nitrile or latex gloves.
2. Fill a wide-mouth glass jar halfway with 2 to 3 centimeters (1 inch) of plain water. (Why water? Elemental mercury is 13.5 times denser than water and completely insoluble in water; dropping collected mercury beads into a jar with a layer of water on top creates a water cap that traps the mercury at the bottom of the jar and stops it from evaporating back into the air every time you open the lid during cleanup.)
3. Turn off the overhead room lights and hold a bright LED flashlight horizontally right against the floor at a 5- to 10-degree grazing angle:
4. Liquid mercury beads act like tiny spherical mirrors. Even micro-beads smaller than a grain of salt will glint and sparkle brightly across the floor when a flashlight beam skims horizontally across the floor surface.
5. Search a wide circle at least 3 to 5 meters (10 to 16 feet) in every direction from where the thermometer dropped, including under baseboards, radiator feet, and cabinet toe-kicks.

Step 2: Herd and collect liquid mercury beads (Card + Eyedropper + Tape)¶

1. Pick up broken glass shards first: Use tweezers or index cards to pick up the broken glass thermometer stem and place the glass into your sealable disposal jar.
2. Herd beads together slowly using stiff index cards:
3. Hold two stiff 3-by-5-inch paper index cards, playing cards, or stiff plastic postcards at a low 30-degree angle against the floor.
4. Use slow, gentle pushing strokes to herd smaller mercury droplets toward the center until they touch and coalesce into one larger silver puddle (move slowly so beads do not roll away at high speed).
5. Suck up the pooled mercury with a plastic eyedropper or oral syringe:
6. Squeeze the rubber bulb of a medicine eyedropper (or pull back the plunger of a needleless plastic oral syringe) while holding the tip almost flat against the floor at the edge of the mercury bead.
7. Slowly release the bulb to draw the liquid mercury into the dropper tip, hold a damp paper towel under the dropper tip as you lift it, and squeeze the mercury directly underneath the water layer inside your glass disposal jar. (Place the contaminated eyedropper itself inside the disposal bag when finished.)
8. Capture microscopic beads with sticky tape or shaving cream:
9. Shine your flashlight across the floor again. For tiny micro-beads stuck in tile grout lines or hardwood seams that the eyedropper cannot suck up, wrap sticky duct tape or masking tape (sticky side out) around your gloved fingers and dab gently over the area, or dab using a small brush coated in white shaving cream, placing the tape and paper towels into your sealed jar.

Step 3: Optional chemical binding and detection with sulfur powder¶

Emergency hazmat teams and environmental agencies use elemental sulfur powder (flowers of sulfur), sold inexpensively at pharmacies and garden centers as a soil acidifier/fungicide, after picking up all visible mercury beads:

• How sulfur works: Yellow sulfur powder does two helpful things on a mercury-contaminated floor:
• First, it coats microscopic mercury droplets so they stop evaporating into the air, and slowly reacts chemically with elemental mercury (\(Hg + S \rightarrow HgS\)) to form non-volatile mercuric sulfide (cinnabar).
• Second, when yellow sulfur powder touches invisible traces of mercury in a floor crack, the powder changes color from bright yellow to dark brown or black, revealing hidden pockets of mercury you missed.
• How to apply: Lightly dust yellow sulfur powder over the spill zone and rub it gently into floor cracks with a damp paper towel, then wipe up the powder with damp paper towels and seal all towels inside your disposal jar.

Step 4: What to do if liquid mercury spilled onto carpet, rugs, or upholstery¶

If a glass fever thermometer breaks directly onto a carpet, area rug, bath mat, blanket, or upholstered chair, it is physically impossible to remove liquid mercury micro-beads from porous fabric fibers, and leaving them in the carpet creates a permanent indoor vapor source:

1. Never vacuum the carpet, and never put a mercury-contaminated bath mat, rug, or piece of clothing into a household washing machine or clothes dryer. Washing mercury-contaminated fabric contaminates the washing machine drum and drain pump and flushes toxic mercury into your septic system or municipal sewer, while putting it in a hot clothes dryer vaporizes the mercury into a concentrated toxic cloud inside your laundry room.
2. If the spill occurred on a removable throw rug, bath mat, blanket, or pair of shoes, fold the item carefully inward to trap the beads, seal it inside two layers of heavy-duty 6-mil plastic trash bags taped shut with duct tape, and dispose of it as hazardous waste.
3. If the spill occurred on wall-to-wall carpeting, use a utility knife to cut out the contaminated section of carpet and the foam carpet padding underneath it, fold it inward, double-bag it in heavy plastic, and clean the hard subfloor underneath using the flashlight and index-card protocol above.

Health risks and medical triage: what symptoms to watch for¶

Understanding how mercury enters the body helps you distinguish between a low-risk contact and a true medical emergency.

• Touching liquid mercury briefly with intact skin: Elemental mercury is poorly absorbed through healthy intact skin. If you or a child briefly touched a silver mercury bead, remove all jewelry, wash hands and forearms thoroughly with warm water and soap, and do not panic.
• Accidentally swallowing liquid elemental mercury (e.g., a child bites the bulb off a glass fever thermometer):
• First, check the child's mouth and tongue carefully for tiny glass splinters and have them rinse and spit with water.
• Surprisingly, pure elemental liquid mercury (\(Hg0\)) is absorbed very poorly (less than 0.01 percent) by a healthy gastrointestinal tract; if a small bead from a fever thermometer is swallowed, it usually passes harmlessly through the digestive tract in the stool over several days without causing systemic mercury poisoning (unlike inorganic mercury salts or methylmercury, which are highly toxic when swallowed).
• Ta ma'u pe ki he Pule'i 'o e Kona 'i he taimi pe ko ia (1-800-222-1222 'i he 'Iunaiteti Siteiti, 1-844-764-7669 'i Kanata, 111 'i he Pule'anga Fakatahataha, 13 11 26 'i 'Aositelelia, pe ko ho'o feitu'u ngaahi fika fakavavevave) ko ia ‘e lava ke sivisivi‘i ai ‘e ha toketā kona pe ‘oku fiema‘u ha X-ray ‘a e fānaú ke faka‘ehi‘ehi mei he sio‘ata ‘oku ‘alu hake pe ko e mekuli ‘oku ma‘u ‘i he ‘apenitikí.
• Ko hono huhu 'o e kohu 'o e mekuli (Ko e fakatu'utamaki mo'oni):
• Ko e manava 'ea 'i ha loki 'oku 'ikai ke 'ea, vela 'a ia na'e malingi ai 'a e mekuli vai (tautautefito kapau na'e vekiume'i 'e ha taha 'a e malingi pe tuku 'a e ngaahi fo'i 'akau 'i lalo 'i ha baseboard radiator) 'oku ne fakatupu 'a e fakakonahi 'o e kohu mekuli 'oku 'ikai ke fu'u lahi pe subacute.
• Ngaahi faka'ilonga 'o e huhu 'o e 'ea ('i loto 'i ha ngaahi houa 'o e 'asi 'a e kohu lahi): 'Oku 'i ai ha ifo 'o e ukamea 'i he ngutu, mamahi 'ulu, momoko, mofi, nounou 'a e manava, 'u'ulu 'a e fatafata, tale momoko, 'u'ulu, mo e 'u'ulu.
• Subacute / ngaahi faka'ilonga 'o e manava tu'uloa ('aho ki he ngaahi uike 'o e manava 'a e kohu 'o e loki 'oku 'ikai ke fakama'a): Tetetete lelei 'o e nima mo e mata, 'ita, mā lahi pe ngaahi liliu 'o e loto (erethism), ta'emohe, mamahi lanu pingikī/kulokula peeling kili 'o e fanau /acropindyng kili 'o e ngaahi nima 'o e " mahaki"), 'oku vela 'a e nifo, mo e polotini 'i he mimi.
• Sivi fakafaito'o: Kapau 'oku ke mahalo'i 'oku lahi 'a e 'ea 'o e kohu (hange ko hono 'ilo'i 'o ha me'afua mafana kuo motu'a na'e vekiume'i 'i he ngaahi 'aho kuo maliu atu), fetu'utaki ki ho'o toketaa pe senitaa pule'i 'o e kona fakavahefonua ke 'ota ha sivi 'o e mekuli 'i he mimi houa 'e 24 (ko e tu'unga koula ki he sivi 'o e kohu 'o e 'elemeniti 'o e mekuli) pe toto mercury.

Li'aki malu 'o e mekuli kuo tanaki mo e 'ea hili hono fakama'a¶

1. Faka'ilonga'i mo tauhi 'a e hina sila'i 'i tu'a: Tuku 'a e hina sio'ata sila'i 'oku 'i ai 'a e ngaahi fo'i 'akau mekuli, sio'ata motu'a, tepi, ngaahi kaati faka'ilonga, mo e ngaahi kofunima nitrile 'i loto 'i ha kato pelesitiki mamafa hono ua 'o e zip-top, tepi'i ia 'o tapuni, pea faka'aonga'i ha lau 'o e faka'ilonga mahino: "DANGER: CONTAINS ELEMENTAL MERCURY / BROKEN THERMOMETER, DO NOT OPEN". Tauhi ʻa e koniteina ʻi tuʻa ʻi ha fale ʻoku lokaʻi pe fale tauʻanga meʻalele ʻo ʻikai lava ke aʻu ki ai ʻa e fānaú mo e fanga manú kae ʻoua kuo tuku hifo.
2. 'Oua 'aupito na'a ke 'ai 'a e mekuli vai 'i he veve 'o e 'api pe ngaahi puha 'o e toe ngaue'aki: 'I he taimi 'oku laiki ai 'e ha loli veve ha kato 'oku 'i ai ha me'afua mafana 'o e mekuli kuo motu'a pe 'i he taimi 'oku tutu ai 'a e veve 'i ha incinerator veve 'o e kolo, 'oku vaporizes 'a e mekuli ki he 'atakai, convertce ki he vaitupu andc metilimekuli 'i loto 'i he ika. Ta ki ho vahefonua pe kolomu'a Veve Fakatu'utamaki 'i 'Api (HHW) fale, potungaue tamate afi, pe polokalama to'o fakafoki 'o e falekoloa faito'o fakalotofonua ki hono li'aki ta'etotongi 'o e mekuli.
3. Tauhi 'a e loki 'oku 'ea 'i he houa 'e 24: Hili hono faka'osi 'o e fakama'a tohi, tauhi 'a e matapa sio'ata 'i tu'a ke fakaava (pea mo ha fan puha matapa sio'ata 'oku ne puhi'i 'a e 'ea 'i loto ki tu'a 'o fakafou 'i he matapa sio'ata kapau 'oku ma'u) mo e matapa 'o e loki 'i loto 'oku tapuni 'i he 'ikai si'i hifo he houa 'e 24 to smen the in.

Ngaahi fehu'i 'oku toutou 'eke .¶

Ko e hā ʻoku fuʻu fakatuʻutāmaki ai ke fakaʻaongaʻi ha meʻa fakamaʻa vekiume ʻi ha meʻafua mafana mekuli kuo motuʻa pe foʻi moli CFL?¶

'I he taimi 'oku mimisi ai 'e ha vekiume 'a e ngaahi mata'itofe 'elemeniti 'o e mekuli pe mekuli-coated phosphor efuefu, 'a e vave 'o e 'ea mo e vela 'o e vekiume 'uhila 'o e me'alele vela mo fakahoha'asi 'a e ukamea vai, 'i he taimi pe ko ia 'oku liliu ia ki ha ta'e 'asi, odorless kona 'o e mekuli kohu 'oku blasts mei he vacuum 'o a'u ki he exhau'. liunga 100 ‘a e mā‘olunga ange ‘i ha malingi ‘oku ‘ikai ke fakahoha‘asi. Ko e meʻa ʻoku toe kovi angé, ʻoku ʻufiʻufi ʻe he ngaahi mataʻitofe mekuli siʻisiʻí ʻa e loto ʻo e paipa vekiumé, impeller, mo e fale ʻo e mīsiní, ʻo liliu ai ʻa e meʻa fakamaʻa vekiumé ki ha mīsini kohu mekuli feʻaveʻaki tuʻumaʻu ʻokú ne toe ʻuliʻi ho ʻapí ʻi he taimi kotoa pē ʻokú ke fakamoʻui ai ia ʻi he kahaʻú.

Te u lava fēfē ʻo ʻiloʻi pe ʻoku ʻi heʻeku meʻafua mafana kuo motú ha mekuli kona pe ʻolokaholo ʻikai kona?¶

Vakaiʻi lelei ʻa e lanu ʻo e meʻa huhuʻa ʻi loto ʻi he ʻakau sioʻatá pe ʻi he falikí: kapau ʻoku kulokula, lanu pulū, lanu vāleti, lanumata, pe ʻuliʻuli ʻa e meʻa huhuʻá, ko ha meʻafua mafana ʻo e ʻolokaholo pe laumālie ʻokani ʻoku ʻikai ha mekuli ʻoku ʻikai ha fakatuʻutāmaki ʻo e kohu ʻo e mekuli pea ʻe lava ke holoholoʻi ʻaki ʻa e sopu mo e vai hili hono toʻo hake ʻo e sioʻatá. Ko e ngaahi thermometers pe 'oku 'i ai ha me'a ngingila, ukamea, siliva-hina 'oku ne fa'u 'a e takai, takai 'a e ngaahi fo'i ukamea 'oku 'i ai 'a e 'elemeniti 'o e mercury (pe 'i he taimi 'e ni'ihi ko ha 'elemeniti 'o e gallium 'ikai kona 'oku ui ko e Galinstan, 'a ia 'oku smears hange ko e vali siliva 'oku 'i ai 'a e vai 'i he sio'ata 'ikai ke takai ki he friction).

Ko e hā ‘e hokó kapau ‘e u‘u fakatu‘upakē ‘e he‘eku tamá ha me‘afua mafana ‘o e mekuli pea folo ha ki‘i fo‘i fo‘i mekuli?¶

‘Uluakí, sivisivi‘i fakalelei ‘a e ngutu mo e loungutu ‘o ho‘o tamá ki ha fanga ki‘i fo‘i sio‘ata iiki pea ‘ai ke nau fufulu mo ‘anuhi ‘aki ‘a e vai, pea tā leva ki he Poison Control (1-800-222-1222 ‘i he ‘Iunaite Seteté) pe ko ho‘o toketaá ‘i he taimi pē ko iá. Ko e me‘a fakafiemālié, ko e mekuli ‘elemēniti vai ma‘á ‘oku to‘o ia ‘i he si‘i hifo ‘i he peseti ‘e 0.01 ‘e ha fo‘i ‘uto mo‘ui lelei, ko ia ko ha ki‘i fo‘i ‘akau ‘oku folo mei ha me‘afua mofi ‘oku meimei ke ‘alu ta‘efakatupu maumau ma‘u pē ia ‘i he ngaahi ‘inisēkite ‘i he ‘utó ‘i ha ngaahi ‘aho si‘i ‘o ‘ikai fakatupunga ‘a e kona ‘o e mekuli; ko e fakatu‘utāmaki lahi ange mei ha me‘afua mafana kuo motu‘á ko hono mānava‘aki ‘a e kohu mekuli ta‘ehāmai ‘oku tuku ‘i he falikí pe kāpetí kapau ‘oku ‘ikai ke fakama‘a totonu ‘a e me‘a kuo malingí.

‘E lava ke u kei ngāue‘aki pē ‘eku me‘a vekiume kapau te u vekiume fakatu‘upakē ha me‘afua mafana ‘oku motu‘a ‘i he mekulií?¶

'Ikai, kapau na'a ke faka'aonga'i ha vekiume 'i 'api ke mimisi hake 'a e vai 'elemeniti 'o e mekuli mei ha mofi motu'a 'o e mafana, thermostat, pe barometer, 'atakai 'o e ngaahi kautaha mo'ui lelei (kau ai 'a e US EPA mo e ATSDR) fale'i 'oku meimei ke 'ikai lava 'e he vekiume 'o e me'alele ke decontaminate locursside merfe . ngaahi hose 'oku 'i ai 'a e 'uhiki. ʻOku totonu ke ke toʻo leva ʻa e vekiumé, ʻave ia ki tuʻa, silaʻi ʻa e vekiume kotoa ʻi loto ʻi he ngaahi kato veve pelesitiki mamafá, pea fetuʻutaki ki hoʻo puleʻanga fakalotofonua ki he Veve Fakatuʻutāmaki ʻi ʻApí (HHW) pe potungāue moʻui ʻa e siteití ki ha ngaahi fakahinohino ki hono liʻakí kae ʻikai ke toe fakalele ia ʻi loto fale.

Kuo vakaiʻi ʻa e ngaahi maʻuʻanga fakamatalá¶

• Potungaue Malu'i 'o e 'Atakai 'o e 'Iunaiteti Siteiti (US EPA): Ko e me'a ke fai kapau 'e motu ha me'afua mafana 'o e mekuli, Fakama'a ha CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) kuo motu, mo e Malingi, Li'aki mo e Fakama'a 'o e Feitu'u 'o e Mekuli 'Elementale.
• Potungaue ki he Ngaahi Me'a Kona mo e Lesisita 'o e Ngaahi Mahaki (ATSDR / CDC, 'Iunaiteti Siteiti): Profile Fakakonahi ki he Mekuli, Ngaahi Fakahinohino ki hono Pule'i Fakafaito'o (MMG) ki he Faka'ali'ali 'o e Kohu 'o e Mekuli 'o e 'Elemeniti Fakatu'utamaki, mo e Ngaahi Levolo Ngaue ki he Malingi 'o e Mekuli 'i he Nofo'anga.
• Kautaha Mo'ui 'a Mamani (WHO): Ko e Faka'ata ki he Mekuli: Ko e Hoha'a Lahi ki he Mo'ui 'a e Kakai mo e fakahinohino ki hono fakangata faka'aufuli 'o e ngaahi me'afua mofi mo e sphygmomanometers 'oku 'i ai 'a e mekuli 'i he malumalu 'o e Konivesio 'o Minamata.
• Mo'ui 'a Kanata (Kanata): Mekuli 'i Ho 'Atakai: Fakama'a 'a e Ngaahi Mekuli Si'isi'i 'oku Malingi mo e Ngaahi Maama Fluorescent Compact kuo Motu.
• Potungaue Malu'i Mo'ui 'a Pilitania (UKHSA) mo e Potungaue Fakamatala Fakafonua ki he Ngaahi Kona (NPIS, Pilitania): Pule'i 'o e Ngaahi Me'a 'oku Hoko ki he Mekuli, Faka'auha 'o e Malingi 'i 'Api, mo e Fakakaukau Fakalukufua ki he Kona.
• Potungaue Mo'ui 'a e Siteiti Niu 'Ioke mo e Potungaue Pule'i 'o e 'Uli 'o Minnesota: Fakama'a ha Ki'i 'Api 'oku Malingi 'a e Mekuli (sivi 'o e flashlight grazing-angle, ha'i 'o e efuefu sulfur, mo e ngaahi tu'utu'uni ki hono li'aki 'o e kapeti 'oku 'uli).

Ngaahi fakahinohino fekau'aki¶

• Malingi kemikale: 'api mo e hazmat 'o e malu'i
• Ko e tokoni 'uluaki kona mo e ngaahi polokalama Pule'i 'o e Kona
• Cooktop sioʻata motumotu, Pyrex pahū, mo e sioʻata motuʻa ʻi he meʻakaí
• Ko e fakamoveuveu ‘o e ‘asipesitosí, efuefu ‘o e lētí, mo e ‘asi lahi ‘a e radon .
• Tohi fakahinohino fika fakavavevave