Disposal of Mercury

Slagging off is more fun though :-)

their approved method for handling waste mercury.

And isn't it quite expensive. I'd have taken it to a chemist rather than a scrap metal dealer.

I'd be worried where the murcury ended up, would it have leaked fromm their= skip while travleing along the road, maybe it'ds get back into the envirmo= ment, maybe sopmeone wil, find it in teh road and play with it, or perhaps = it'd just sink back into the soil......

I'd be very worried if I saw anyone discard murcury in the way the scrap de= aler did, then again maybe he does to the same with plutonium so why worry = about mercury ;-) =20

Regarding mercury being a hazardous substance:

When I worked in the NHS in the days of glass mercury thermometers they spent a fortune installing Mercury Scavenging Kits on each ward to safely collect the mercury in the event that a thermometer was broke. Prior to that we just used a dustpan and brush.

I recently tried to sell a clinical glass mercury thermometer, which only contained a very small amount of mercury, and that triggered the following email from the 'Elf 'n' Safety Brigade:

Dear ...

I work for the Chemical Compliance Team within the Environment Agency. We are responsible for the enforcement of the REACH Enforcement Regulations

- chemicalcompliance

So, work it out for yourselves!

ted the mercury into a glass jar which has been living in the shed. I recen= tly became a bit bothered about the potential risk should someone disturb i= t when I am not around, so decided to take it to the local recycling centre= after establishing that they would accept it so long as it was inside a se= aled container. To my supply the attendant took the jar and instead of taki= ng it to a secure cabinet as I expected just threw it in the metal recyclin= g skip. I can understand that mercury is a metal but so is plutonium and on= e wouldn't expect that to be thrown in with the scrap. Perhaps the explaina= tion lies in the fact that the risks are to a degree mitigated by mechanica= l handling and adequate ventilation from the time the scrap is deposited in= the skips, or alternatively the handling and storage precautions ISTR from= my schooldays were OTT. j

When I was in a similar situation I found there were barometer enthusiasts = keen to come and collect it from me.=20

Robert

Hang on. Either he already has your email address, or he doesn't - in which case you aren't going to get the email! (or was this actually an eBay, or similar, "secure message"?)

Yes, but not, I'll wager, via your cabbages and potatoes.

Yes; a round "F*ck off and shove it up your jacksie", would have emanated from yours truly.

This was via Ebay. However, Ebay had already ended the listing before the Chemical Compliance Team spluttered into action because they "don't allow mercury-containing products to be posted, but it is OK to offer them for pick up".

But, the Chemical Compliance Team "don't allow the sale of items containing mercury to the general public", whether they pick-up or not.

I wasn't going to sell it to the general public, the winning bid was from a doctor.

Any road up, the doctor emailed me after the listing ended it, after which I posted the thermometer to him then he paid me via my PayPal account. So I didn't break Ebay's rule and I didn't sell it to a member of the public.

F*ck 'em, f*ck 'em all!

I'm told practicals are a thing of the past in most schools, not due to H&S, but due to no time left after covering everything that's centrally mandated nowadays.

However, it reminds me of a lecture at university, Materials Science topic. Lecturer started with a balloon (blown up) in one hand, and a pin in the other, and jokingly said "I should really have a safety screen for this!" When he stuck the pin in the balloon and it burst, the knot shot off and got me in the eye, which was quite painful.

Did you get to keep 100% of your compensayshun?

Owain

Much of the mercury (on average, 3g per person at cremation) has migrated (harmlessly) to other parts of the body by then, so removing teeth/fillings doesn't work. Many other artificial parts (such as pacemakers) are removed before cremation, to avoid releasing toxic fumes.

and it's take-up by plants that converts it into the highly toxic organic mercury compounds, which you neither want to consume directly, nor do you want leaching into your drinking water.

That is sound advice for the instrument that was being sold.

I'll take that as another excellent reason for not eating vegetables.

Owain

My calculations work out that a cola size can (330ml) will cost about =A345=

anyome else come up with that sort of figures.

for me that makes meucury expensive.

Ironically, I didn't write that.