How to Clean Up a Mercury Spill

​If you do not have a mercury spill kit, you should have the following items:

• stiff paper (for example, index cards)

• flashlight

• duct tape or packing tape

• eye dropper

• plastic or rubber gloves

• sulfur powder (available at garden stores)

• plastic zipper-lock bags.

• small empty plastic container (bottle or tub)

Mercury spill kits are commercially available from safety supply companies or online (search for “mercury sorbents”).​

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• Never use a vacuum − it will blow mercury vapors into the area, increasing the chances that you will inhale the vapors.

• Never use a broom or paint brush or cloth or paper towel − it spreads mercury.

• Never use household cleaning products. They may react violently with the mercury and release toxic gases.

• Never pour mercury down a drain or put it in the garbage. Call 1-800-732-9253 for information about where to safely dispose of mercury waste.

• Never allow people with contaminated clothes or shoes to walk around.

• All people and pets should be kept away from the area until proper clean up has been completed.

• Continue ventilating the room for several hours.

• After clean up is completed, wash your hands and face.

Hard surfaces such as linoleum, vinyl, or hardwood floors

• Wearing gloves, work from the outside of the spill toward the center.

• Use the stiff paper to push the beads of mercury together.

• Use the flashlight to look around in all areas of the spill. The light will reflect off the shiny mercury beads and make it easier to see them.

• Using the eye dropper, suction the beads of mercury and carefully deposit them into a small empty plastic container (bottle or tub). Use the eye dropper to get mercury out of cracks or crevices.

• Using the tape, pick up remaining mercury and place tape, eye dropper, and plastic container into a plastic bag, along with the stiff paper and gloves. Seal the bag so that it won’t leak.

• Sprinkle sulfur powder on the spill area, a color change from yellow to brown indicates that mercury is still present and more clean up is needed.

• Place the plastic bag of waste in a second plastic bag and label it as mercury waste.

• The section of carpet that is mercury contaminated should be cut out, if possible. The cut out carpet, along with all clean-up items, should be placed in a plastic bag and then placed in a second plastic bag labeled as mercury waste. If the carpet is not removed, open the window during the next several times you vacuum it to provide good ventilation.
  

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