"You're doing the right thing!"
During the Dragon Boat Festival this year, in the emergency room of Shandong Qingdao Women's and Children's Hospital, a panicked couple came, holding the child and saying to the doctor: "Doctor, the child accidentally ate the mercury in the thermometer, you quickly think of a way!" ”
After checking the child's condition, the doctor asked the child's parents about the first aid measures, and could not help but express such feelings.
A child whose life is on the line
It turned out that after the 2-year-old child took his temperature at home, his mother put the thermometer on the table because of the incident. Who knew that the child was naughty, put the thermometer in his hand and played for a while, then put it in his mouth, and immediately bit the thermometer. The family heard the child's crying, quickly did a simple treatment and came to the hospital.
After the doctor's examination, he found that there were no glass fragments in the child's mouth, and after taking the film, he also found that the child was actually not a big problem, so he asked the child's parents whether they had done any first aid measures. The child's father said that after he found the child biting the mercury, he did not say a word, first of all, he cleaned the child's mouth, took out the glass fragments, and then found a sealed bottle to seal the mercury. At this time, the father found that the child's oral mucosa was intact and was also relieved. Immediately after that, the father let the child drink a carton of milk.
Detoxifying effect of milk
After the doctor listened, he nodded his head and praised the father, "You did the right thing!" Doctors explained: mercury is a heavy metal, may lead to poisoning, the main reason is that mercury will lead to human protein degeneration, loss of its normal function and cause human poisoning, after drinking milk, due to the protein contained in milk, and the protein in the human body competes with mercury, thereby reducing the human protein and mercury reaction, alleviating poisoning and harm to the human body, at the same time, the protein in milk will chelate with mercury, hindering the body from absorbing mercury.
In addition, the vitamin A contained in milk also has a protective effect on the cells of the respiratory mucosa, and it is also an option for a high-quality protein source that protects the respiratory tract. At the same time, milk can delay the absorption of other substances in the stomach, which can delay the absorption of poisons and acid-base chemicals in the stomach, but only delay, not prevent its absorption, especially for acute drug poisoning.
If the child swallows only a small amount of heavy metals, this method still works, but if the child swallows too much, he should still seek medical attention in time. If the child is biting through the mercury, it is even more dangerous! In case the glass scratches the mouth, mercury will enter the bloodstream along the wound, causing toxic dizziness, trembling hands and feet, and serious kidney damage, which is life-threatening. The fragments of the thermometer after biting cause damage to the mouth, throat and even the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract, gastric perforation, etc., and the consequences are unimaginable.
The destructive power of mercury
The doctor added: Don't underestimate the mercury thermometer that contains a little mercury, its destructive power is still very amazing. As far as the smaller bedroom is concerned, it is generally 15 square meters large and 3 meters high, and experiments have shown that breaking a thermometer, after all the mercury in it has evaporated, can immediately make such a bedroom mercury concentration seriously exceed the standard, which is even more terrible than gas leakage!
What is more frightening is that this mercury volatilizes into the air, it will be inhaled into the human body through the nasal cavity or mouth, or even the skin and mucous membranes, easily causing coughing, nasopharyngeal mucosa damage, and the focus will directly destroy our respiratory system, causing edema, and even dyspnea, chest tightness and other symptoms.
Long-term exposure to mercury vapor can cause muscle weakness, poor coordination, paralysis of hands and feet, rashes on the skin, anxiety, memory problems, and difficulty in seeing, listening and speaking. Children also cause pinkness, which means that the skin becomes pale and pink. Long-term complications that may include kidney failure and mental decline.
How to deal with mercury thermometer crushing
So what should we do if a child bites through the mercury thermometer? The first step is to take the child out of the room first, after all, breaking the mercury room, mercury volatilization will enrich the entire room, it is easy to cause mercury vapor poisoning, so quickly take the child out is the first priority. Then you have to check whether there are any scratches in the child's mouth, and if there is, you need to quickly take the glass fragments out of the child's mouth and clean the child's mouth.
Not only that, but also to check the child's skin and body for scratches to avoid mercury entering the child's body through the wound. Next, as an emergency measure, let the child quickly drink some egg whites and drink milk for detoxification. Finally, the most important point is to go to the hospital for examination and treatment!
For rooms that have been polluted with mercury, not only should people not go in, but pets must leave. In addition, all doors and windows leading to other bedrooms should be quickly closed, and the doors and windows facing the outside should be opened, so that the mercury vapor can go out on the one hand, and the fresh air can be circulated on the other hand, and then maintain a ventilated environment for at least 24 hours.
Be more careful when cleaning the wreckage, don't use a broom, and don't use a vacuum cleaner. Instead, wear plastic gloves, collect mercury beads from thin cards or cardboard into empty plastic bottles, and then discard them after they are specifically marked as "mercury waste" on the garbage bag.
If mercury is sprinkled on rough flat surfaces such as carpets, a large number of mercury balls are difficult to gather together and clean with pieces of paper, at which time they can be glued with tape and then moved to the plastic bag with the tape. Plastic bags are recommended to be covered with an extra layer to prevent cracking and leakage.
An alternative to mercury thermometers
It is precisely because mercury thermometers have caused so many safety hazards that the mainland has introduced new regulations. From 1 January 2026, the production of mercury-containing thermometers and mercury-containing blood pressure measuring instruments will be completely banned. Instead, electronic thermometers and infrared thermometers are used.
Some netizens may be worried that the body temperature data measured by other products is not accurate enough, in fact, the current types of electronic thermometers, sphygmomanometers in use as long as you pay attention to the operation of the use of specifications, the accuracy of the measurement has been able to meet the needs of most of the family temperature measurement, compared with mercury thermometers, the advantages are obvious.
The temperature measurement principle of the electronic thermometer is to use a temperature sensor to output an electrical signal. Depending on the computing speed of electronic products, electronic thermometers can quickly measure body temperature, the average time is about 15s, compared to mercury thermometers, saving a lot of measurement time, high work efficiency. Moreover, the electronic thermometer is safe to use and the measurement accuracy is high, but it is necessary to maintain a fixed posture when measuring, and the measurement position also needs to be correct, which is not suitable for younger children.
The infrared thermometer believes that everyone is no stranger, especially during the epidemic. It can focus the infrared thermal radiation of the human body on the detector, and then convert the radiated power through the detector into an electrical signal. Generally from the forehead 3cm ~ 5cm can be measured, their advantage is 3 ~ 5s can complete the temperature measurement, simple operation, rapid reading, can avoid cross infection, but the infrared thermometer is easy to be affected by the environment and distance, but the measurement accuracy is relatively poor.
After all, there are too many factors that affect the temperature of the forehead, room temperature, the dryness of the skin will affect the results, just wash the face or take off the ice patch directly measured the "body temperature", but also does not reflect the real temperature of the human body. No regular medical institution will use an infrared thermometer as a tool to determine whether the fever is or not. However, infrared thermometers are convenient and fast, and are often used in kindergartens, playgrounds, airports, and railway stations, where people are large and need to be quickly screened for fever patients.
However, I believe that with the progress of science, there will be more and more fast and accurate thermometers to replace the dangerous mercury thermometers!