On March 15, at 8:52 p.m., rescuers received a report that in the city of Lviv, on the street Tershakovtsi, in one of the apartments, a medical mercury thermometer broke in the apartment.
Also, on March 16 at 07:11 a message was received that on the street A medical mercury thermometer broke in Dovbush in Lviv.
The department of radiation, chemical and biological protection of the emergency and rescue unit of the special emergency and rescue unit of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Lviv region was sent to the scene of the calls.
Rescuers collected mercury mechanically and carried out demercurization work.
The collected mercury was handed over to the Department of Emergency Situations and Civil Protection of the Lviv City Council for storage and further disposal.
Do we want to remind you again what to do when a mercury thermometer is broken?
• remove all people from the premises, primarily children, the disabled, and the elderly;
• protect the respiratory organs, at least with a wet gauze bandage;
• wear rubber gloves to protect the skin of the hands;
• limit access to the spill site. Mercury sticks to surfaces and can easily be carried on soles to other areas of the room;
• start collecting mercury: collect large balls with a syringe and immediately drop them into a glass jar with a solution (2 g of potassium permanganate per 1 liter of water). Water is needed so that the mercury does not evaporate.
• keep the jar away from heating devices. WARNING! Remember that mercury drops and fragments must be collected from the periphery to the center of the room;
• small droplets can be collected with the help of a syringe, a rubber pear, two sheets of paper, an adhesive plaster, tape, a wet newspaper and also thrown into a jar;
• wash contaminated areas with a soap-soda solution (400 grams of soap and 500 grams of soda ash per 10 liters of water);
• close the room after processing so that there is no communication with other rooms and ventilate it;
• if it is a matter of spilling a larger amount of mercury, all safety precautions should be followed, and the specialists of the rescue service “101” should be called immediately.