Vacuum up mercury, what to do next?

Surely, in many houses you can still find a mercury thermometer for measuring body temperature. Although their electronic counterparts have long appeared on the medical equipment market, mercury models displace them at a snail's speed. Representatives of the older generation are skeptical of modern devices and are sure that only a mercury thermometer can show the exact temperature. But it often happens that such a thermometer breaks right in the apartment, and this becomes a serious problem, since mercury that was outside the glass cone can cause serious damage to the health of your household. Let's find out if it is possible to collect mercury with a vacuum cleaner.

to contents ↑

How not to make it worse?

If mercury from a damaged glass thermometer is in your home and you used a vacuum cleaner to collect it, then it automatically becomes a source that will emit mercury vapor. As a result, each time you start cleaning with this household appliance, you will create a concentration of mercury vapor more than 10 times higher than normal.

Even near a turned off vacuum cleaner, a device that captures mercury vapor (gas analyzer) will show a significant excess in the air of this toxic metal.

Important! The room is 16 square meters. m, in which such a device will simply stand, an infected device will maintain in the room the natural background of the content of mercury vapor not 350 units, but much higher. These values ​​will reach 800-1500 units.

And now what to do - throw away a useful household appliance? Perhaps you don’t have to do this, for a start it is worth making sure that the mercury really got there and its vapors are indeed present. The “Mercury vapor” test system will help you with this.

The strip must carry out the following manipulations:

• Disassemble the unit (remove the dust container and disconnect all parts that are disconnected).
• Place it disassembled in a large plastic bag so that all parts are on the floor.
• Place the test strip inside the bag so that the strip is about 20 cm above the parts of the device.

Important! The test strip must be placed with the reagent up.

• If the concentration of mercury vapor is significant, then after a couple of hours the test will acquire a light gray color.
• In this case, run the test again, but exclude dust collectors and filters from the set of unfolded parts.

Important! Use a different bag for the new test, as the old one has already accumulated mercury and the test result will not be accurate.

• If the exclusion of filters and a dust collector did not change the situation with the time of operation of the mercury vapor test, then there is still a chance to save your vacuum cleaner.

Important! However, this method is an extreme measure, and you should understand that the proposed method can permanently disable a household appliance, since it all depends on its manufacturer and design.

to contents ↑

How to clean a vacuum cleaner from mercury?

To clean the vacuum cleaner from mercury at home, proceed as follows:

1. Take a chemical demercurizer (in this case we are talking about a demercurifier against atomic mercury in liquid form).
2. Assemble the device - all parts except the dust bag, that is, the entire set of the vacuum cleaner with hoses.
3. Put on the vacuum cleaner everything that was on it at that moment when you vacuumed a broken thermometer.
4. Connect the appliance to the mains and prepare a demercurizer.
5. Switch on the device for suction and spray the demercurization liquid into the hose through which the air is sucked in approximately five times, let the device run for another couple of minutes and turn it off.
6. Expose the vacuum cleaner for 7 days.
7. If after all these manipulations the content of mercury vapor does not decrease, then it is time to say goodbye to a household appliance.

Important! The above procedure does not guarantee that your vacuum cleaner will be able to remain operational after manipulations with the demercuritor. In addition, this method will not be able to save you from all the contaminants of mercury that have got into the device - it will only reduce the concentration of mercury vapor.

to contents ↑

Stock footage

Thus, as you probably already understood, vacuuming mercury is not a good idea. After such a "disposal" of toxic metal, there is a huge chance that you will have to part with your favorite household appliance forever.