To be this worried about past mercury exposure

[CalamityJaneDoesItAgain]

About three years ago I smashed a mercury thermometer on my tiled kitchen floor. Hoovered it all up and only afterwards thought "oops, maybe shouldn't have done that". But it was done so I just forgot about it. Until I woke up at 2am this morning and it popped into my head! A quick Google to "reassure myself" confirmed that I did indeed do the worst possible thing and should have thrown out the vacuum cleaner.

I now have a 6 month old baby and am worried sick. Is my house still full of poison!? Perhaps there are tiny bits left in the cracks, giving off fumes for all this time! The vacuum cleaner also lives in the cupboard in our living room where we've spent the vast majority of our time recently.

Is there anything I can do now other than abandon my house?! Or am I having a middle-of-the-night panic over nothing?

You are being over cautious. Chuck out the vacuum cleaner if you are that worried. If no one in the household is displaying any symptoms of poisoning then you don’t need to worry. If your child is licking the carpet then it may be an issue but I doubt they are doing that.

I was born in 1970. At school, in the early 80s, in a physics class, the teacher let us play with "quicksilver" with our bare hands. We're all still going strong.

Hi OP, I'm another one who played with mercury as a treat at school, I also used asbestos mats under the bunsen burners in biology and chemistry classes. Finally I had mercury fillings in my teeth.

I'm still going strong too :)

Mercury poisoning develops after long exposure of it being absorbed through the skin, no? Hence tradesmen Hatters slowly going 'mad'.
I'm sure it isn't airborne. Did it smash on a hard surface? It isn't liquid enough to soak into mortar etc if you dealt with it quickly.

Empty your hoover and move on -in the kindest possible way.

Also have played with mercury.

I played with mercury as a child after smashing a thermometer at home and having no idea what it was. 43 and still here.

The thing is, I wouldn't really worry about it if it hadn't happened in my house. But I feel like it's contaminated the air we breathe every day. Now I've (stupidly) googled it, it sounds really serious

@TinySongstress apparently the danger is through breathing it in, it's even less dangerous to swallow the stuff!

My general view on these type of things is that if they were that dangerous, they wouldn't be sold. Thermometers break all the time.

As a child I once put a mercury thermometer in the kettle which then broke and the mercury was loose in the kettle

I can’t remember how but I cleaned it up and didn’t tell anyone

It’s only reading this thread now that I’ve remembered it

You'll be fine. Very many people have had much more exposure to mercury than you and are just fine. Pure metallic mercury isn't that bad, there are other firms of mercury (such as methylmercury) that are much worse.

I have broken a fair few thermometers in a hospital environment.
The rule was iirc that a normal thermometer didn’t need a mercury spill kit as the volume was too small, you could clean it with, I dunno actually I can’t remember. Maybe picked it up & binned it?
If you changed the vac bag I wouldn’t be worrying about it I don’t think.
In fact, are you certain it was mercury in the thermometer,I thought they used something else for more modern ones.

In fact from wiki:
“ United Kingdom[edit]
Since European Union directive 2007/51/EC came into force on 3 April 2009, the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) reported that mercury thermometers could no longer be sold to the general public. Shops holding stocks of unsold thermometers had to withdraw them from sale; mercury thermometers purchased before this date could be used without legal implications. The purpose of these restrictions is to protect the environment and public health by decreasing the amount of mercury waste released.[12] The HPA had, in 2007, released a guide to dealing with small spills of mercury.”

It was an ancient one and definitely mercury, unfortunately. No idea how or why I even had it!

Also my vac is a bagless one (bloody typical!)

Really it's the baby I'm worried about, DH and I have been fine ever since so I'm not too bothered about us. It's difficult to find info online about how long the stuff lingers for, especially after being cleaned up inappropriately. Can't believe I hoovered it up and made it 100x worse!

It’s fine.

Way over anxious in this one. You can wash out your Hoover canister and the filters but there's no need. Baby will be fine.

I think the only way to make you feel better is to change the Hoover. Is that a option for you?

Your anxiety is totally misplaced. Another one here who played with mercury regularly as a child and probably never washed my hands (it was seen as a really fun thing to play with and was encouraged during science lessons), also used asbestos boards in chemistry and also in the kitchen. I am 65 and still going strong. Honestly, you are focussing on the wrong things to worry about.

OH smashed our old-style thermometer and was abolutely paranoid about it. He followed the instructions for cleaning it up, but as it had smashed over a basin, he couldn't be certain there wasn't mercury caught in the pipes. In the end, he got a company to come and check (and clear up if necessary - which it wasn't, but they dismantled the u-bend to be sure). You can also hire a mercury meter, which is a little less expensive (but still about £200).

I think it's very unlikely there's a problem, but if it would give you peace of mind, you could consider a meter.