Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Advice on Mercury Spill

Flip - 10-10-2006 at 21:11

Alright, so whilst playing with some mercury today, I spilled about 40 grams upon a pile of clothing. The floor underneath was hardwood, and I managed to recover 26 grams. The problem is that I don't know what happened to the other 14 grams.

My biggest concern is the clothing. What would you do? I'm thinking that the spin cycle might not be enough...

Is there anything I can safely add to the wash that might adsorb or salt with the mercury and not ruin my clothing?

Any other ideas on the best way to salvage the clothes?

If it was your clothing, would you wear it again?

What is my worst case scenario for wearing these clothes?

I can see a few articles have nano beads of Hg in the fabric, while others *appear* to be unnaffected. I salvaged what I could and threw the obviously tainted clothing into a basket. Now i'm just wondering if these articles are fracked up beyond all recognition, and whether i'll need to save for a new wardrobe.

Thanks guys,

Flip

Waffles - 10-10-2006 at 21:24

Shit, dude. You shouldn't have moved the stuff. Anywhere the mercury might have gotten, put sulfur powder all over the place. Put the clothes in several layers of plastic bags. And DON'T wash the clothes, the mercury will likely get in your washer, and spend years evaporating for you to breathe whenever you do the laundry.

Moral of the story: play with mercury outside, or over a bowl. Or both. And have lots of sulfur on hand.

not_important - 10-10-2006 at 21:43

Some of the mercury is likely down in the holes and grooves of the floor.

How bad the effect is depends on what references you look at. The organic mercury compounds are bad, they are formed mostly in water and particularly in the bottom mud. The inorganic salts are toxic if ingested or absorbed. But people have been exposed to massive amounts of metallic mercury without showing ill effects, even years later. Still seems kind of iffy to me.

Don't wash them - the mercury is likely to end up in your washer, in the drains, in the sewer system, or some combination of those. In the washer isn't good, in the drains means organic mercury compounds drifting around your drain plumbing. In the sewers is just being unkind to everyone else as well as yourself.


Ignoring what was said in the above paragraph, dissolving the mercury isn't too likely without pretty reactive stuff. There are some solutions of sulfur in amines that will react to form HgS, which is pretty insoluble and fairly inert, but those would seem to have a chance of damaging the clothes and are not OTC either.


More likely is that you will need to declare the clothes as hazmat and properly dispose of them, if there is some grams of mercury spread through them. Several layers heavy plastic bags, a big label. You could through sulfur in there, just to tie up some of the mercury.


Much less useful - Put the clothing in a large heavy duty plastic sack or plastic storage container than seals tightly. Toss in zinc strips or mossy zinc, say 5 to 10 times as much as the Hg. Seal the contain up and leave it alone. The mercury amalgamates with the zinc, which eventually can be removed. The time it takes to do this depends on the diffusion and evaporation rates of the mercury. Ideally you would use granulated zinc and tumble it with the clothing to speed things up. This will take a long time, so you will need to wear less clothing or buy new stuff in the mean time, or take up nudism. This is really only useful for something that can't be replaced, like your greatgrandmother's wedding dress.

You could nitrate the clothing, with the mercury going into the nitrating acids; this would give you a good stockpile of nitrocelluose or nitro-whatever. Rocket pants!


Plastic pans and tubs are much cheaper than a new wardrobe, not to mention getting mercury out of the floor. Suggest you consider that for the next time you play with mercury.

A way to clean the floor is to spread zinc dust on it vacuum the dust up with a vac that won't ignite the zinc dust/air mixture. Sweeping doesn't get the zinc dust out of the pores and cracks, but it's better than nothing; if that case after sweeping use a damp cloth (which will be contaminated after use) Repeat several times, then do once with flowers of sulfur and sort of grind that into the floor.

Alternatively just ignore it, and plan to run for president in a few years after the neurotoxicity hits.

Eclectic - 10-10-2006 at 21:56

Avoid using zinc dust and sufur both on the same area. The mixture is rocket fuel. :o

not_important - 10-10-2006 at 22:05

Quote:
Originally posted by Eclectic
Avoid using zinc dust and sufur both on the same area. The mixture is rocket fuel. :o


Only if you play with matches as well as mercury. Not too many people go around holding lit matches to wood floors.

And the idea is to get all the zinc up, along with the mercury it absorbs. The sulfur is much slower in reacting, as is used as a long term fix.

Flip - 10-10-2006 at 23:06

Something OTC would be handy, but obviously I have to live here so i'll do what I need to do. Right now i'm trying to avoid thinking of my room as a chemical disaster zone. Anyone know if Chemizorb (zinc powder) is availiable on the shelves anywhere? If not, I might opt for the flowers of sulfur. I mean, 14 grams isn't a lot when you think about it... just a little over a mL. The problem is that judging by the size of the particles i see in the clothing, I might not have gotten it all w/ conventional cleaning, and it could have easily spread over a wide area (dropped it from about 4 ft. and also spread some when picking up the clothes.)

Damn I lost some really nice sweaters.

leu - 11-10-2006 at 05:12

Amalgamation with scrap steel turnings would be the simplest and cheapest way to remove the mercury from the clothing and recover the mercury later :D

Eclectic - 11-10-2006 at 06:01

A mixture of zinc dust and sulfur can detonate from friction or percussion.

Mercury does not amalgamate with iron or steel.

Zinc dust is available on Ebay in 1-5lb quantities.

Try to set up some type of exhaust fan in your window. 50-100 CFM should keep mercury vapors from reaching hazardous levels.
6-18 months should be sufficient. If you don't like them already, learn to love onions and garlic. The sulfur compounds in them are fairly effective heavy metal chelators.

You could dust the clothing with zinc and store in a spacebag until spring, shake and vacuum everything out (outside), and store in a hot ventilated attic over the summer, then wash. There shouldn't be much mercury left after that. If you use sulfur instead of zinc, you might get vermillion stains.

[Edited on 11-10-2006 by Eclectic]

gsd - 11-10-2006 at 06:59

"Amalgamation with scrap steel turnings would be the simplest and cheapest way to remove the mercury from the clothing and recover the mercury later "

Mercury does not form an amalgam with Steel. Infact bulk mercury is stored in 3 lit steel
containers. (34.5 kg mercury per flask is the industrial bulk mercury unit.)

gsd

[Edited on 11-10-2006 by gsd]

IrC - 11-10-2006 at 07:13

Bag the clothes and throw them away. Vacuum the floor with nozzle and good suction, then throw bag away. The earth is loaded with Hg ores and I do not see anyone declaring the planet a hazmat zone. Just get it out of house and quit worrying about it.

Or spend several hundred grand for government geeks in space suits to hazmat the area. Your choice. People are getting too paranoid. Or is it too PC.

Rocket fuel to clean up Hg. You guys are scaring me.

Odyssèus - 11-10-2006 at 07:29

I have heard that vacuuming is not a good way to remove Hg because it breaks up the mercury into smaller droplets which evaporate faster and that gives you higher levels of Hg in your air.

Eclectic - 11-10-2006 at 09:43

Toxic levels of mercury vapor will only be a potential problem in a very airtight modern house without active ventilation. Still, I'd sweep zinc dust around to collect the spatter. BTW, the guys in hazmat suits aren't geeks. They are minimally trained, poorly educated garbage men whose only knowlege of chemistry is "hazardous waste". The EPA guy in charge is likely a political hack appointee with little or no science training.




Mercury Info

[Edited on 11-10-2006 by Eclectic]

YT2095 - 11-10-2006 at 10:49

Wow, I never knew K3wlz could even Get that old :P

woelen - 11-10-2006 at 12:11

Flip, you have a BIG problem.

The loss of the clothes is the smallest problem you have. Get rid of those clothes, don't wash them and throw them away in a well-sealed plastic bag.

I would break out the wooden floor from the room where you spilled the mercury and also get rid of that wood. Then clean the floor very well (using zinc and/or sulphur) and get rid of all cleaning stuff as well.

This will be a hundreds of dollar loss, or maybe thousands :o. Don't think too lightly about this. In the long run the mercury will do big damage to your health (and to your home-mates, family or whoever live with you).

For this reason I absolutely do no experiments with metallic mercury, I'm really too much afraid for spilling the metal and having a zillion tiny droplets of metal all over the place.

You definitely should not vacuum clean the room. That will spray very fine droplets through the air and will contaminate other parts of the house as well.

Maja - 11-10-2006 at 12:17

I dont' know ... But in my country people used to play with mercury a lot of maybe ten years ago ... They even didn't know that it's toxic... There was alot of mercury around .... you can get a lot of thing here... childrens used to play with it ... dropping it everywhere and not paying attention to it's toxicity ... It's really scary to me right know ... But when you don't know, you don't think about it and it's toxicity

IrC - 11-10-2006 at 12:54

A properly designed vacuum and filter is exactly how the hazmat people get it out of floors and ground.

Eclectic - 11-10-2006 at 13:01

Get real. Heavy metals are a natural part of the environment and always have been. There is no reason to panic over a few ml of mercury. I'd be concerned if there were infants, pregnant women, or preteens in the house, but not FREAKED OUT!!! The half life of elemental mercury in the human body is about 3 weeks. Less if you like horseradish, mustard, radishes, and alliums. It's NOT methyl mercury!

The hazmat folks also raise the heating system to 85-90 (F) degress for a few weeks with the ventilation system turned on (bathroom exhaust fan) to evaporate the remainder.

[Edited on 11-10-2006 by Eclectic]

leu - 11-10-2006 at 13:04

Quote:
Mercury does not amalgamate with iron or steel.


Quote:
Mercury does not form an amalgam with Steel.


These statements are contrary to Romanian Patent 84,123 titled:
Recovery of mercury from gases and aqueous liquids
Gases and aqueous solutions are reduced-oxidized by contacting with scap alloy (99526-28-0) containing Fe 93.2-94.2, C 3.2-3.6, Si 1.8-2.2, Mn 0.45-0.65, P 0.25, S 0.05, and Cr 0.05 %. Then the scrap is heated to 270-290 ° C and Hg is recovered by flushing with air and water. The condensed Hg is purified by distillation or rinsing with pressurized water. Thus an aqueous solution containing 50 mg HgCl2/L was contacted with the scrap Fe alloy to give a spent solution containing .001 mg Hg/L

This patent was filed by scientists from Combinatul Chimic, Riminicu-Vilcea on May 10 1983 and granted on Jun 30 1984 :P In days of yore mercury was commonly available, but now the chemophobics have promoted hysteria by using the mass media :mad: Copper also amalgates Hg according to several patents, a visit to a good science library will verify this matter :cool:

[Edited on 11-10-2006 by leu]

Eclectic - 11-10-2006 at 13:06

That's not amalgamation. It's using iron as a reducing agent.

5 - 11-10-2006 at 13:15

Here's your sign.
Would it help you get over the loss of your clothes if I were to break it to you that mercury is stored in the brain and has a 10 year half life? Slightly better than lead which has a 20 year HL and is stored in the bones.
Do a websearch for Minimata japan and mercury poisoning then tell me how nice those clothes are.

leu - 11-10-2006 at 13:25

Quote:
That's not amalgamation. It's using iron as a reducing agent.


Please read the attached patent; GB814862 there are many other patents that state the same thing :D What is your source of this misinformation :P

Attachment: GB814862A.pdf (433kB)
This file has been downloaded 750 times

Eclectic - 11-10-2006 at 13:29

Elemental mercury is VERY different from METHYL mercury, just as inorganic lead is VERY different from tetraethyl lead. I'd swallow a ml of elemental mercury on a dare (for enough money), but I don't want to be in the same county with methyl mercury.

S.C. Wack - 11-10-2006 at 13:51

leu, you might have to concede this one unless you can find a reference that states that Fe/Hg can be made at STP without electricity.

5, your post on methylmercury has nothing to do with this topic, as inhaled Hg is not converted to it.

Vacuuming Hg with a vacuum cleaner is unwise and highly unrecommended. If it can pick it up, a bulb vacuum might be better than dealing with picking up Zn dust for the most part. Zn dust is in alkaline batteries. Hg that has seeped under the floor is not exactly volatizing fast. It may remain when someone unsuspecting decides to replace the floor, finds Hg, freaks out, calls the authorities and lawyers, who start asking you questions. I'm not as freaked out as woelen, but then I was poisoned by Hg myself, maybe I'm drain-bamaged. I'd be more worried about liability than anything else.

[Edited on 11-10-2006 by S.C. Wack]

Waffles - 11-10-2006 at 13:52

Quote:
Originally posted by Eclectic
Elemental mercury is VERY different from METHYL mercury, just as inorganic lead is VERY different from tetraethyl lead. I'd swallow a ml of elemental mercury on a dare (for enough money), but I don't want to be in the same county with methyl mercury.


There is a big difference between swallowing mercury and having finely dispersed mercury in your house. IIRC, some small fraction of a percent of mercury is absorbed into the body through touching/handling, and this usually impregnates itself in the skin and sloughs off soon enough. Either 1% or 4% of the Hg is absorbed through the digestive tract from swallowing the elemental metal, and as you have been saying, the absorbed metal is (relatively, for a heavy metal) quickly cleansed by the natural chelating agents in the digestive tract you were talking about. However, when mercury just hangs out in the open, it evaporates- over 95% of the mercury inhaled is absorbed, and instead of hanging out in the digestive system where it would be cleansed, it goes straight into the bloodstream and the majority of it deposits in the brain.

Point is, I would much rather drink a small beaker of mercury than have even a mL around my clothes, washing machine, or absorbed in my wood floor.

I wouldn't say rip out your floor or anything. But again, isolate those clothes in a bag, preferably with sulfur or zinc (EITHER, not BOTH) until a proper course of action can be determined. I like the idea of having a fan in the room, and circulation in the house.

Eclectic - 11-10-2006 at 14:28

The vapor pressure of elemental mercury is not very high at room temperature, only about .001 torr, so with normal ventilation, air concentration is fairly low. (Actual calculations are left as an excersise for the students). Tightly closed rooms can be problematic. Felt used to be made using mercury compounds, hence, "mad as a hatter". AFAIK, the effects were not universal, and this was with daily exposure to high vapor concentrations in sweatshop conditions.

Mad as a Hatter

Sulfur compounds don't just chelate heavy metals in the gut, they also bind them in blood and tissues.

leu - 11-10-2006 at 15:43

Maag and Hecker of the USDA published this in the Journal of Environmental Quality 1(2), 192 (1972):

Mercury in the metallic or ionic form is a poisonous pollutant when added to our sewage systems. Solutions containing mercury salts are frequently used in laboratories and proper disposal of such waste is a problem. We have developed a simple method for removing mercury from waste solutions by a chemical displacement reaction. The metallic mercury is recovered, purified and reused. Waste solutions are poured into a glass container containing several strips of aluminum foil and allowed to stand a minimum of seven to eight hours. Aluminum foil was chosen because of convenience and availability, but other metals such as iron or zinc could be used. A transfer of valence electrons from the aluminum atoms to the mercury ions results in the formation of aluminum ions and the free element mercury. The mercury globules can be recovered, purified, and reused while the remaining solution containing the aluminum ions can be poured down the drain with no bad effect. The ability of metals to form ions in solution depends upon the ease with which metals lose their valence electrons. Metals which are more chemically active (valence electrons possess more energy) lose their valence electrons in solution more readily than metals which are less chemically active (valence electrons have less energy). Since aluminum is more chemically active then mercury, the replacement reaction occurs spontaneousy in solution. Aluminum will replace mercury ions in an acid, neutral or basic solution. In this procedure a dilute hydrochloric acid solution is recommended since elemental mercury is recovered without further manipulation. Nitric acid (dilute or concentrated) and concentrated sulfuric acid will oxidize mercury to form mercuric salts. The mercury can be recovered from the aluminum-mercury alloy formed in basic solutions by treatment with hydrochloric acid. The recovered mercury can be further purified by distillation. Mercury pollution of our environment is a serious problem, but there is a second reason that mercury ions should not go through the waste system. The iron and lead in waste pipes and traps are more chernically active than mercury. A transfer of' valence electrons occurs betweern these metals and the mercury ions, resulting in waste pipe deterioration and release of lead into the waste system.

[Edited on 11-10-2006 by leu]

Eclectic - 11-10-2006 at 15:50

There again, the metals are dissolving in a solution of mercury salts and precipitation metallic mercury. Maybe then amalgamation with lead, copper, and zinc, but not iron. An iron nail will cause a "tree" of silver to form if immersed in a silver nitrate solution, but it's not amalgamating. Zinc works well as a scavenger for mercury because it does not have a tightly adherent inert oxide coating and "wets" easily. The resulting alloy/solid solution has a vapor pressure MUCH lower then elemental mercury. See dental amalgam mercury vapor pressure.

Sulfur works well because HgS is very insoluble. I read somewhere that to dissolve 1 gram would take more water than is contained in San Francisco Bay.

[Edited on 11-10-2006 by Eclectic]

leu - 11-10-2006 at 17:07

According to the Journal of Chemical Education 50(11) 739 (1973):

Spilled Hg can be easily recovered by adding a small amount of a dry ice/acetone mixture to the Hg. It freezes within seconds and can be picked up. When the Hg has melted it can be reused or purified.

US 3704875 which describes using zinc, magnesium, aluminum or iron amalgams to process either elemental or ionic mercury:



[Edited on 12-10-2006 by leu]

Attachment: US3704875A1.pdf (327kB)
This file has been downloaded 651 times

not_important - 11-10-2006 at 21:22

While the following are solubilities of metals in mercury, I'd be surprised if there was more than an order of magnitude difference for mercury in the metal.
From Sidwick's The Chemical Elements & Their Compounds, weight percent solubilities of metals in mercury:

Li 0,09
K 0.80
Cu 0,0032
Ag 0,04
Au 0,12
Mg 0,24
Ca 0,3
Zn 2,15
Cd 4,92
Al 0,003
In 0,0073
Tl 42,8
Sn 0,62
Pb 1,3
Bi 1,4
Pt 0,02
Mn 2,5 x 10-4
Ni 5,9 x 10-4
Co 1,7 x 10-7
Fe 1,0 x 10-17

V, Mo, W listed as near zero. It states than "1 cubic mm of iron amalgam contains 15 individual atoms of iron.


Mercury is stored and shipped in iron and steel containers, and pumped with steel pumps throught steel pipe. Doesn't sound like the industry is very worried about the pipes dissolving.
Determing solubilities of uranium, thorium, and various fission product metals in mercury, using a steel extraction pot.

http://www.ornl.gov/info/reports/1960/3445603614435.pdf


I just plain doubt those patents. Patents often try to cover all possible bases, in many cases including things they didn't try but "might work". I've wsted a lot of time attempting to use a patented process on on of the 'additional' substrates.
The recovery of mercury doesn't require an amalgam, see http://www.udl.com/pdf/p83.pdf THE RECOVERY AND RECYCLE OF MERCURY FROM CHLOR-ALKALI PLANT WASTEWATER SLUDGE

When you electrolize a solution containing a metal ion using a mercury cathode, the result has often been called an amalgam even though what has been made is a dispersion of the metal in the mercury, x-ray studies showed them metal was in the form of crystals of the pure metal.

solo - 13-10-2006 at 04:49

Mercury Spills: The Vacuum Cleaner Solution

Recently, several articles appeared in rhtc Journol, dealing with the recovery of mercury spills ' In our laboratory, WP have been working for some yema with several different mercury manumeters and from time to time, with spilled The major prohlem is to collect it from the junctions between the tiles of the floor or of the bench. An efficient method, compatible with the subsequent purification of this expensive element consists of sucking it up by means of a filter pump. About 5 m of vacuum tubing is connected hetween the pump and a trap, itself attached to 1 m of flexible plastie tube (polypropylene, for example/ ending in the suction devke. This part consists of a length of glass or metal tuhe (inner diameter = 5 mm) flattened to ohtain a small aoerture of about 0.5 X 5 mm. this size deoendine deoendin-e on the power of the pump. Larger dimensions tend to decrease the efficiency of the suction, smaller cause rapid clogging (unclogging
is easy with a steel pin).

The trap is held in one hand, the other sweeping the area to be cleaned with the suction device. For comers difficult to access, one can use a glass tuhe tapered to about 2 mm in place of the former device. Before stopping the pump (slowly, to avoid hack-draught) it is advisable to raise the plastic tube vertically over the trap to ensure that the mercury drops into it. The recovered mercury is filtered and p~rified.~
' Lk Nardis, R L., and Maalanka, R.J. CHEMEDUC., 60,336 (1972): Idoux, J. P., J. CHEM. EDUC.,50,739 (1972): Bowmaker, G. A,, J. CHEM. EDUC., 51,
126 (1973).

Wilkin~nM, . C.. Chem. Reu. 72,575 (1972).
Campus Valrase Jean Francais Gal
06034 Nice Cedex, France Marcel Azzaro

............source Journal of Chemical Education 51, 126, 1973
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.............included also are,


A Cleanup Procedure for Handling Mercury Spills
D. H. Anderson P. J. Murphy W. W. White
Journal of chemical Education # 2, pg.A74, 1978


An Improved Mercury Retriever
Melvin S. Newman
Journal of chemical Education # 2, pg.A78, 1978

Attachment: a clean up procedure for handling mercury.pdf (1.8MB)
This file has been downloaded 569 times