Mercury spill decontamination incident at the Rockefeller University

Abstract

A common mercury spill occurs from the breaking of a thermometer. Usually an incident of this size is quickly remediated with little effort and low cost for waste disposal. A small mercury spill that occurred at the Rockefeller University proved otherwise. A typical laboratory thermometer may contain one to three grams of mercury. A simple calculation reveals that one gram of mercury is enough to create an IDLH (immediately dangerous to life and health) atmosphere under the right conditions. This report describes the extent of contamination and effectiveness of cleanup procedures during a recent event wherein the entire contents of a mercury thermometer were heated to complete vaporization within a single, unventilated cold room. This investigation demonstrates some of the problems associated with mercury spills including lack of regulatory clearance standards, salvaging equipment and research materials, reducing downtime, voluminous mercury contaminated waste, cost and time expenditure, and the lack of a procedure for remediating widespread surface contamination. Recommendations for minimizing these problems in the future will include a greater effort in persuading research laboratories to replace mercury-containing thermometers with non-hazardous alcohol- or spirit-filled thermometers.