Australia's Science Forum

Hi Everyone
I would really appreciate some help with how much Mercury a school should have - is there a restriction? Also, are Mercury thermometers still used in schools by teachers or seniors.
I am new to this site and still finding my way around.
Thanks for your help!
Sharon

We dont have mercury thermometers any more .. we use the ones with red or green spirit in them THOUGH I will say they are not very accurate!
We DO have some mercury - which the teachers only can use .. they use it as a dem ..
I have two identical containers - one with mercury and one with water.. they show the difference in weight between them.. and also the meniscus...
Pam

I thought I would try answering the question, I have rung up, but it could take a few days before we get an answer. So at this stage I have NO idea how much a school can keep, my Head teacher thinks it may be 2g's.

2g's!! Gosh .... (RosalieM - just imagine how much was in your jar!)

I'm still finding old thermometers as I clean out 7 storerooms and 2 Prep Rooms.

Pam - thanks for the great idea to have the 2 identical bottles for comparison. I think I'll add a container of water to my elements prac for that purpose.

2g wouldn't even be a drop! The density of mercury is 13.55g/ml, so 2g would be 0.147ml (if I calculated it correctly).

I agree, it use to be 2oz that it came in. But their you go Head Teacher knows better?????????????

We have Mercury in our school everyday mainly because the local paper is called The Mercury

Thus explaining why Tassies are crazy.

Hi All,

There is no regulatory amounts of Mercury a particular School may have. Typical pack sizes from chemicla suppliers are usually 100g or more. I have seen 1kg to 5 kg pack sizes.

Mercury thermometers can be purchase at your own discretion, although I have 90% of our thermometers being a white spirit or (very pure kerosene + Coloured dye mixture) but I use the mercurial for myself.

Idealy the Mercury filled are better as expansion coefficients are more predictable in these thermoms but for what accuracy is lost in spirit thermoms I think you make up for unnesceasrrly hazmat cleanup.

The choice is yours in the end.

Just to add before I go, of a little story if I may... I used to purify and distill mercury when I was in industry. The need for clean pure Hg was very important. You get to appreciate the nature of the element after working with it for many years.

It can be used safely in the Laboratory.

Cheers,

Robb.....

Now don't get uptight about mercury there is probably more around than you realise, if your industrial arts section has a houndsfield tensile tester, this is filled with mercury.
The spirit thermometers are up to 110C but the 250 & 350 C thermometers will still be Hg.
I have a Hg column barometer here, also the trick is not to have a spill by controlling the situation, and when the worst happens a set procedure of
1 Clear the room
2 Sprinkle Sulphur powder over spill area
3 Sweep up and collect in contaminated waste container
4 Repeat step 2 and leave overnight
5 Sweep up sulphur
Hopefully this never happens but knowing and being prepared takes the panic out of a situation

We had a beautiful old mercury barometer here, until it got broken by students last year, while I was away. Big, old, and very heavy!

It was roughly cleaned up, using sulfur, and the resultant bits & pieces put in chemstore for the next council cleanup. Then I noticed I was getting severe headaches and nausea any time I went in there, and asked the Principal to move it. He rang the local fire brigade to query what to do, and within minutes Hazchem was on the spot!
Gets even funnier - I heard all this from the school captain that evening when he served me at a checkout, and asked what all the fuss had been about at school that morning!!!!!

(There are no chemical storage cupboards in my Chemstore, and inadequate ventilation - perhaps it was the combination of fumes that got to me, gradually settled again once that was removed).

Talking about ventilation - am celebrating today, with streamers and balloons on the P/R door, because the relieving GA managed to get one of the windows to open in here!! YAY!!
It's only taken 5 years to achieve that miracle So exciting!!

Blessings to all