13 May
2013
13 May
'13
3:25 p.m.
> bet that most of those schools have
mercury-switch thermostats everywhere.
> Every school I attended did.
On Mon, 13 May 2013, Cory Smelosky wrote:
Surprisingly, most everything was digital or too
simple to contain
mercury at any I went to.
I'm not familiar with any thermostat simpler than a bimetallic spiral with
a vial of mercury on the end of it. Or did you mean a manual valve on a Any mercury
spill would've been taken seriously.
More so than major spills of ammonia or
bleach.
10+ years ago, the college administration was considering evacuating
several buildings due to a spill of a pint of Kodak Stop Bath that had
been stored in a maintenance tunnel between buildings.
Oh $deity...
The stop bath I use is a fairly dilute solution of acetic (ethanoic)
acid. It's about as harmful as that other dilute solution of acetic acid
that people sprinkle on their fish and chips (at least over here, I haev
no idea what you put it on). You know, vinegar.
We identified it, and explained what it was. But, the administration
didn't calm down until they heard from the head teacher of the Chemistry
department that it was not flammable, explosive, or a deadly toxin in
miniscule amounts.
The spill was right onto a floor drain. We suggested that they pour
copious amounts of water into that drain to dilute it and flush it away.
They declined, saying that the chemistry teacher had said that it was
DANGEROUS to pour water into acid.
In the case of sulphuric acid, that cna be true. But not with most other
acids. And certianly not with stop bath. I wonder how this idiot washes
plates, etc that have had food containing vinegar on them?
-tony