Australia's Science Forum

We are DOE school so Mercury is a teacher only ( red Dot ) substance .
We have about 100mls of it in a reagent bottle with a plastic screw lid which is glued on .
The teachers take it into the class to show the pupils what it looks like and the reverse meniscus can clearly be seen.

Our teachers are extremely paranoid about dropping it .They are wanting to know if there is a safer way .

How do you guys store , move and handle mercury ?
Is it any safer in a plastic container ?

I have about the same amount here at my school.
I have it in a see through plastic bottle, but then placed in a metal beaker. Incase the bottom comes way. If the teachers use it to show meniscus they place a layer of water on it to stop fumes and use it in fume hood. My teachers keep it in metal beaker to weigh it, and then we have a spare beaker about the same to minus beaker weight... Not accurate but close enough
I store in the corrosive cupboard. When it is ordered I generally place it directly in fume hood at start of lesson or teacher carry's it in with other gear to use in fume hood.
Cheers Trish

Thanks Trish , The metal beaker idea sounds good in case of breakage

Do you have a mercury spill kit available? If the teachers insist on taking mercury into class, you should send in the spill kit. 100mL will go a long way if it spills. I worked with a teacher who "only ever walked around and showed the class". Of course, she was of the opinion that she would never trip over and drop the bottle. She thought I was over reacting when I gave her the spill kit. It was my way of saying "I'm not cleaning this up".
At the end of the day, it is the teachers who need to determine the risks associated with a prac. However, we are entitled to our say if we are the ones expected to clean up any spills. I do question the value of the students having to see mercury against the risks it poses to my own health.

I am in the process of getting rid of ANY mercury in my school. I was under the impression that it was not a necessary chemical/metal to have in the school.

We still have our mercury samples, they live in the chem store and haven't been out in a while. Hopefully the teachers have forgotten we even have them!

melsid wrote:We still have our mercury samples, they live in the chem store and haven't been out in a while. Hopefully the teachers have forgotten we even have them!

Just keep hiding them at the back!

Yep our mercury went in the clean up ..

Merilyn1 wrote:Do you have a mercury spill kit available? .

Yes we do Merilyn but its as old as the hills .Nobody asks for it .I guess I should be pro-active and insist they take it .
My off-sider who I share the job with had me convinced that in case of a mercury spill , it is an evacuation and call HAZMAT .

I did not realize I have to clean it up .....or are there differing degrees of a spill and if so when do you declare it beyond an in house clean-up ?

Certainly something to think about BEFORE the teachers take it out of the chem store. Does the new CSIS package have any guidelines? I can't access the new one, as I am in an independent school. If it was the whole bottle, calling HAZMAT may be well and truly justified. But at what point is it a large spill or a small one? This is something that should be considered in a risk assessment done before the chemical is "used" ie even taken into a class room. Read the Safety Data Sheet, show this to the teachers as well, they may not be so keen to use it in future.
At the end of the day, if we had a chemical stored on-site that required the services of HAZMAT in the event of a spill, I'd be seriously considering the reasons for having it on site. I didn't have any say in it in my old job, so had to do the best I could. I should have taken it up with the WHS committee, as I would recommend anyone else to do if they had concerns about any chemical.

I send it out when they do elements, with the MSDS/SDS and spill kits. I have only kept a small amount for demonstration and at some point before it was deemed totally out of bounds a teacher dropped a steel ball in it so it demos the density nicely.
I think having a few demo chemicals is great providing the teachers are responsible. If I have a dodgy teacher then I "cant find it", and apologise profusely and insincerely!!!

Has anyone bought a mercury spill kit recently? We have a new teacher who is insistent on having mercury to show the students. We do have a small bottle of about 50mL but there IS NO WAY THAT IS GOING OUT TO A JUNIOR CLASS OR ANY OTHER CLASS for them to "have a play with", not even in a sealed bottle. Riskassess has it as a teacher only chemical but he wants the students to be able to handle the container so they can feel how heavy it is.
He has sent me a link for mercury switches. My attitude is if we are going to let mercury, in any quantity, into a classroom we need to have the appropriate spill kit.
All well and good for teachers to have this idea because they aren't the ones to clean up the spill!!

BTW the teacher also asked for gallium. Riskassess - teacher only, keep in a sealed container, corrosive and can cause severe skin burns. No way, not on my watch!

I have hidden all our mercury and taken it off the chem store location list. Stupid to have it around - it's going when we have enough stuff for the disposal company to collect. Check out this gallium video on YouTube - it can't be quite as dangerous as RiskAssess would have us believe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_VYf8MdVSw

We bought a spill kit last year with no problems.

We still have a demo bottle of mercury here but that is all. Most teachers don't want to use it, but occasionally one will bring it into the room to show them. Luckily at the moment I can trust ALL of my teachers to use it appropriately and not let the students "have a play".

I have removed every tiny bit of mercury from the school, even some old thermometers we had. No longer needed in my opinion in a school

I have a spill kit, can't remember where I got it, Westlab or Haines. I have a bit in a jar in a jar with a ball bearing floating on it. Supervision only. If you are careful it's OK. I think kids should get to see, and learn to respect, chemicals. Mercury is everywhere, in the oceans and the atmosphere, best they learn about it. If you don't trust the teacher say no.

I'd be happier with it going out IF I had a proper spill kit. But even then, we are the ones that are stuck cleaning up after these things :(

I understand. I have never had a spill in over 30 years, I had a teacher play with it back in the early 90's, and had broken thermometers etc. you can put a powder over it and suck it up. As I understand it, it vapourises at room temp and is absorbed thru' the skin. We are all wearing masks and we don't have to touch it so I am not at all worried about it. You can still buy spill kits.

We found four bottles of Mercury in our big Chem Store clean up and my Head Teacher and I decided we don't want it around so it's going in the chem disposal when they come. I don't want it near me and as a parent I don't think it's necessary for the students to have it around - when you weigh up the risks. Especially now information in visual form is so readily available via technology now. Its not quite the same, but better than nothing.
What does everyone think of antimony? Do you all still have it in your stores?

IMO, we have Antimony, is all good with me. Use gloves and demo only.