Australia's Science Forum

Hi all,
Does anyone have any info on the Mercury spill that happened at Smiths Hill High School (Wollongong). Apparently fire brigade and hazchem were called in. I read about it in the local paper.

No, but if you have any more info, post on this thread, I would like to know more.
lada

I'd be interesteed to hear more too!

I just googled it and came up with this:

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news ... 55857.aspx

Rosalie

Be interested to know how much mercury it involved, as a little runs a long way as we know. Covering 2 sq metres isn't all that big an area, unless it was solidly covered. Wouldn't have thought of calling emergency services before, but now I would knowing what we know about mercury. I was put in a position many years ago to clean up a spill and I was not happy about it, as I was pretty wary even then.

yeah we had a spill of (i think) about 40ml last year and i cleaned it up. Mind you, it wasn't very efficient as I was still finding little balls of it days later!

I suppose it was difficult to clean up so quietly because it is a HEAVY METAL.

Sorry, once lived in the 'gong' just had to add that!

We had a spill a few years ago, not here but the local primary school. A mercury thermometer was dropped and broken, the whole school was evacuated, the highway closed, the nearby houses evacuated and the hazmat team from Goulburn called in to clean up the spill. Pretty dramatic for a little country town.

Imagine the cost, what ever happened to using sulfur to clean up. Plus didn't we have to get rid of all the mercury thermometers.

Gee I can remember being given a mercury by the science teacher and hitting back and forth along the science bench with a ruler. That just shows how old I am!!!!!!

Yeah we used to push it around on the desk with our fingers.

we used to roll it around in the palm of our hands - lots of that got dropped and left in the cracks of the floor -lol glad i dont work at the old school still the same old building it was wheni went so bet the mercury is still under the floor boards

I don't know how accurate this is, as I got it from a student at Smith's Hill High, but the story is that a student was sent to get some mercury for a class, and was running back when he dropped the container and mercury went everywhere.
I just looked at CSIS, and mercury is not banned in schools, but can be 'used in teaching and learning situations, restricted to teacher demonstration only'. There's also a note about mercury thermometers for secondary science only.
I got rid of all our Hg thermometers here and replaced them with spirit ones, which I think alot of us did, but it was purely for safety reasons, because of the risks of Hg if one of them did break. And lets face it, easily done.
This episode is a reminder to exercise care where chemicals are involved.
Have a safe day!
Ellice.

Earlier this year I found a mercury thermometer had broken just at the tip of the bulb in the thermometer drawer in the prep room. I donned the breathing mask and gloves etc and used the Mercury Decontaminant powder we have. Worked well. All stuff "contaminated" by the mercury is in a large plastic container (includes themometer) that will be in the chemical disposal pickup at the end of the year. Head teacher wont let me get rid of the mercury thermometers (we normally use alcohol) so they have been banished to the equipment store where (mostly) only I go and the drawer only contains alcohol ones now. I have been looking sideways at the myriad of containers of mercury I have in the chemical store and wondering whether to get rid of most of them.
Regards
Sue G

If you do decide to get rid of it, ask around if anyone wants some for their school for demos. There is a prac for physics that we use it for (teacher demo) and when ours got spilled I looked up replacing it and it is unbelievably expensive. I ended up getting some from a fellow labbie who had more than enough at their school and was willing to pass some on to us.

Good idea RosalieM I was only thinking in terms of disposal. If other labbie/s would like some I would gladly give it away! Only problem is how to transport it safely ?! but I'm sure we can work something out! I'm in Newcastle, NSW. If anyone wants some mercury, as long as we work out the transport, its yours.
Regards
Sue G

Quicksilver in a NSW school? Never!!!

very clever

i'm not questoning how, but i have some mercury with parrafin oil with it. How do i get the parrafin oil of the mercury? relieving science lab assistant says while thinking thank goodness jack of all trades and master of none

Does it mix? or is one settled above the other? I would imagine the oil is on top so I would say get a pipette and remove the oil that way. otherwise a separating funnel but that would create a greater risk of glass breaks and spillage... what type of container is it in?

thanks RosalieM, relieving HT came past and assisted me.... all good another box ticked in my learning experience as a Lab Assistant.