The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread

[ElyDave]

National grid also has lots of mercury in tanmper swithces on pre-pay meters. They're slowly pulling the meters out of service and plan to recover all the mercury as hazardous waste.  Two places in europe could do it last time I looked ath this, one in Southampton and one in Switzerland.  Switzerland would have been a transboundary shipment of hazardous waste, not trivial outside of the EU.

And post Brexit where will our haz waste go?

[T42]

Then there's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-mirror_telescope

[Kim]

Then there's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-mirror_telescope

IIRC Hananananananah the Astronononononomer briefly dabbled in those, before specialising in hitting things with spanners and being eaten by African beasties.  Her verdict was "they're fine for cosmology".

[orienteer]

Dental fillings used a mercury amalgam when I was young.

Think all mine have since been refilled with more modern materials.

Minamata disease in Japan was caused by industrial mercury pollution in rivers getting into fish.

[hellymedic]

Mad as a hatter
'Hatters' shakes' (not Hattie Jacques) refer to Hg poisoning...

[ian]

My fillings are still amalgam. It's stable (completely insoluble, hence their use) and there's no need to remove them (in fact, it's safer to leave them in place, though of course, that doesn't pay for your dentist's ski holiday).

Minamata was organic mercury poisoning. Those compounds are extremely dangerous.

[hellymedic]

Some of my dental fillings are mercury amalgam. They were done by either a dental hospital or a private dentist.
My cheap and nasty NHS amalgam fillings never lasted.

[Kim]

My fillings are still amalgam. It's stable (completely insoluble, hence their use) and there's no need to remove them (in fact, it's safer to leave them in place, though of course, that doesn't pay for your dentist's ski holiday).

I have a several of amalgam fillings dating from the mid 1990s, when the damage caused by a brief fad for applying a preemptive sealant to children's molars took effect.  My dentist wants to replace them, but I'm operating on the "sure, once they actually show any sign of falling apart" principle.  If they've lasted 25 years, they're probably good for a few more, so why disturb them?

I have a more recent filling from about 2004, where I was strongly encouraged to go for amalgam, as it was more durable than the polymer stuff.  It seems set to out-last the surrounding tooth, which got bodged with some polymer filling a couple of years ago.  (When it goes, I'm going to have it extracted.  It's right at the back, and I don't use it for chewing anyway.)

[Wowbagger]

Of course, we all know that the world's primary source of mercury is Hg wells...

[ian]

There's no reason to remove mercury amalgam filings (in fact, it's specifically recommended against unless there's a good reason, mostly because drilling these things will release mercury vapour which is bad for you and the dentist). They can corrode through the usual pathways, but generally, if they don't fall out, they'll last a lifetime. Metallic mercury and alloys will pass through you.

I think the main reason for phasing them is the occupational hazard of dentists playing around with the stuff.

[Kim]

They're probably a significant environmental hazard when disposing of dead bodies, but not one that's going to go away any time soon.

[ian]

I think they're supposed to remove them before cremation, for the obvious reasons.

[Kim]

What happens then?  Yellow bucket of teeth shipped to China?

[ian]

We probably dump them in some developing world country.

Google tells me they proposed removing them (though it never seemed to have been accepted, where's the EU when you need it) before cremation, but 'too expensive' so if you live downstream of a crematorium, hold your breath. Probably generically good advice.

There seem to be several recycling firms. Presumably, they recover it and resell it.

[T42]

Or sell it to the lightbulb factories.

[andrewc]

It brings to mind that wonderful first line  ...... "It was the day my grandmother exploded" .... from "The Crow Road". 

[ElyDave]

Most crematoria have now beeen retrofitted with mercury filters on the exhausts as part of licensing under the IED (industrial emissions directive) so before you ask "what did the EU ever do for us?"...

[rafletcher]

You'll be fine.  I seem to remember pushing, with a finger, mercury around a wooden tray in the school chemmy lab some 50 odd years ago.  Then, blowing the asbestos dust off the samples in the minerals lab whilst doing geology at Uni.

Add to that cloud chambers using alpha radiation sources, and bromine to show Brownian motion. For the latter we had a bucket of IIRC Ammonia, and then a bucket of water, in which to plunge our hands if contaminated.  Oh, and we made mercury barometers, fill the tube, thumb over the end and dunk on the basin of mercury 

[Tim Hall]

You'll be fine.  I seem to remember pushing, with a finger, mercury around a wooden tray in the school chemmy lab some 50 odd years ago.  Then, blowing the asbestos dust off the samples in the minerals lab whilst doing geology at Uni.

Add to that cloud chambers using alpha radiation sources, and bromine to show Brownian motion. For the latter we had a bucket of IIRC Ammonia, and then a bucket of water, in which to plunge our hands if contaminated.  Oh, and we made mercury barometers, fill the tube, thumb over the end and dunk on the basin of mercury 

We had an electric motor made from a star shaped piece of metal, a coil and a mercury bath. The tips of the star made and broke the circuit as they dipped in and out of the mercury. Mercury fumes were generated as it did so.

I may have misremembered the details, but the star and the mercury were definitely part of it.

[ian]

Most crematoria have now beeen retrofitted with mercury filters on the exhausts as part of licensing under the IED (industrial emissions directive) so before you ask "what did the EU ever do for us?"...

I figured there must be some directive or regulation (hence my comment) but Google wasn't forthcoming in the details.

I remember our A physics teacher lost the radioactive source for making the Geiger counter click. Found it towards the end of the lesson in his trouser pocket. (Only alpha, but it's the thought that counts.)

[andytheflyer]

You'll be fine.  I seem to remember pushing, with a finger, mercury around a wooden tray in the school chemmy lab some 50 odd years ago.  Then, blowing the asbestos dust off the samples in the minerals lab whilst doing geology at Uni.

Add to that cloud chambers using alpha radiation sources, and bromine to show Brownian motion. For the latter we had a bucket of IIRC Ammonia, and then a bucket of water, in which to plunge our hands if contaminated.  Oh, and we made mercury barometers, fill the tube, thumb over the end and dunk on the basin of mercury 

I'd forgotten the bromine!  IIRC it used to live in a brown glass jar out on the workbenches in the labs, along with conc. Nitric acid and a couple of other fairly dodgy liquids. 

I do recall one lad, Nigel H, knocking the bromine bottle off the bench to the floor where it duly smashed. There was a fairly hurried evacuation of the lab I recall. 

How we laughed......

And we used to (briefly)  light the bench gas taps.  The flame was about a metre long.

And I suspect the Millenials think that our generation are all safe and staid.  If only they knew.....

[T42]

Most crematoria have now beeen retrofitted with mercury filters on the exhausts as part of licensing under the IED (industrial emissions directive) so before you ask "what did the EU ever do for us?"...

I figured there must be some directive or regulation (hence my comment) but Google wasn't forthcoming in the details.

I remember our A physics teacher lost the radioactive source for making the Geiger counter click. Found it towards the end of the lesson in his trouser pocket. (Only alpha, but it's the thought that counts.)

When our physics master received our school's first Geiger counter & sources, none of them were particularly active.  His watch, though, set it ticking like a happy grasshopper. He immediately snatched his hand away from the detector head then realized that the watch had come with it.

When he asked for any other luminous dials on their watches I held mine forward, but it was the more modern type that didn't use radium: the ignorant sod hadn't heard of phosphorescent dials and made fun of me for thinking I had a luminous watch when I hadn't.

[SteveC]

My physics teacher borrowed the school Geiger counter and took it to Cornwall on holiday. He picked up rock samples on the beach which were far more radioactive than anything the school was supposed to have on the premises.

[ian]

Most old (pre-WW2) colour-glazed tableware will make a counter do some frantic BPMs. Especially the red ones.

[ElyDave]

talking of nutty school teachers, my A-level chemistry teacher picked up some nice chunks of limestone with fossils in there on a field trip. When we got back, he decided to clean one up a bit during a class, using a tupperware container full of conc. HCl. Turned it over in the tub a few times to get it coated all over of course.

Next time we saw him he had plasters on all his fingertips