Despite the availability of electronic and infrared thermometers, many people still prefer mercury thermometers – economical, portable and accurate. It has almost become a regular item in many people’s homes. But there is a problem with mercury thermometers: what to do if you break one? The following is the author’s advice taken from a WeChat public account for your reference. Use a moist cotton swab (medical cotton swab can be) or tape paper to stick the mercury spilled on the ground and put it into a small bottle that can be sealed, such as a plastic bottle like a beverage bottle, and add a small amount of water to the bottle, the water can prevent the mercury from evaporating; Chen Chao, psychiatry department of the Sixth Hospital of Peking University Special attention should be paid to the collection process, the action should be fast, and the window should be opened to maintain good ventilation, and hands should not come in contact with the mercury as much as possible The collected mercury should never be poured into the sewer. If the mercury seeps into the groundwater and people drink the water containing heavy metals, it will be harmful to their health, and it is recommended to send the collected waste mercury to the environmental protection department; for the mercury that falls on the ground and cannot be collected completely, sprinkle some sulfur powder to reduce the toxicity of mercury. Also keep the windows ventilated for a long time. Because of the high density of mercury vapor, fans, ventilation fans and other exhaust devices can be used to accelerate the removal of mercury vapor from the air; for rooms contaminated with mercury, iodine and alcohol can be used to ignite fumigation, so that iodine and mercury in the air to generate non-volatile mercury iodide to reduce the concentration of mercury vapor in the air. You can also use 10% bleach liquid to wash the contaminated ground, which also has a certain effect of mercury removal.