During the night of 10 September, a medical mercury thermometer was broken in a flat on Liubinska Street in Lviv. A report of the incident reached the Rescue Service “101” at 00:02.
The thermometer was broken in one of the rooms of a flat located on the second floor of a five-storey residential building. Specialists from the radiation, chemical and biological protection unit of the State Emergency Service in Lviv region were dispatched to the scene.
Rescuers carried out mechanical collection of the mercury and performed the necessary decontamination work in the premises.
The State Emergency Service reminds the public of the main recommendations on what to do if a mercury thermometer is broken. First of all, children and animals must be taken out of the room, the area where the incident occurred should be isolated, and you should avoid walking over the contaminated area so as not to spread mercury around the flat.
You must not touch mercury with bare hands, or collect it with a broom or a vacuum cleaner. The mercury beads should be carefully collected using a syringe, rubber bulb, adhesive tape or sticking plaster, after which the mercury, thermometer fragments and other contaminated materials should be placed in an airtight glass container filled with water and sealed tightly. The room should then be thoroughly ventilated.
Important: mercury, thermometer fragments and contaminated materials must not be thrown into the rubbish or poured down the drain.