If your child bites or breaks the mercury thermometer, do you know what to do properly? The answer is "no", please take a closer look!
01. The 4-year-old son bit through the mercury thermometer, and his mother was praised for handling it
A while ago, the neighbor's 4-year-old son Xiaofan (pseudonym) sat on the sofa weakly.
After measuring it, she found that it was 37.5 °C and had a low-grade fever, so Fan's mother got up and went to another room to find cold medicine. Unexpectedly, when she came back, her mischievous son actually bit the thermometer, and the broken thermometer was still in his mouth, and the mercury in it was no longer visible.
The frightened Fan mother immediately unscrewed a bottle of mineral water, poured some of it, and asked her son to spit the mercury in his mouth into the mineral water bottle.
Then he turned on the flashlight and checked that there seemed to be mercury in his son's mouth, but fortunately the child's oral mucosa was not cut. After cleaning up the mercury in the child's mouth, Fan's mother took her son to rinse her mouth, and at the same time asked Fan's father to go to the kitchen to beat 2 egg whites, and then forced her son to drink it.
Fan's mother, who was still a little worried, instructed her grandmother to open the doors and windows for ventilation, and at the same time found a medical cotton swab, squatted down and quickly collected the mercury beads scattered on the ground after dipping it in water.
Fan's mother looked at the mercury gathered in the mineral water bottle, afraid that her son would be poisoned by mercury. After changing clothes, I took my son to the hospital. X-rays show that the child does have a small amount of mercury in the intestines, but the child does not have a toxic reaction.
After the doctor asked the mother to go home, she told the child to drink more milk or egg whites, and eat more crude fiber foods in the next few days, such as long leeks, so that mercury can be quickly excreted from the body. At the same time, the doctor also gave a thumbs up and praised Xiaofan's mother's "two decisive treatments" as very useful.
The first decisiveness: after finding that the child bit through the thermometer, quickly cleaned the mouth, and decisively let the child drink the egg white;
The second decisiveness: after collecting the mercury correctly, the child was sent to the hospital in a timely manner.
The doctor said that after the correct treatment of Xiaofan's mother, the child will basically not be poisoned.
Later, after Wen Wen's father met Fan's mother in the yard, Fan's mother reminded Wenwen's father that the mercury thermometer at home should be put away in time after it is used up, so as not to be broken by the child.
Coincidentally, a 2-year-old child in Shenzhen also took advantage of the adult's inattention to bite the mercury thermometer and swallowed part of the mercury.
After a radiographic examination, it was found that the boy did have mercury in his body, and finally after a series of examinations, oral cleaning, gastric lavage, vomiting and other measures, the child turned around.
02. After the mercury thermometer was broken, the destructive power was amazing
After Wen Wen's father checked the relevant information, he found that the destructive power of the mercury thermometer was so great.
It has been found that if a mercury thermometer is broken in a bedroom, all the mercury in it evaporates into the air, and then the mercury concentration test is carried out immediately, and the mercury concentration in the bedroom is much higher than the national limit for mercury concentration in the air.
If two mercury thermometers were broken in a bedroom and the mercury concentration was measured immediately, the mercury concentration in the room would be 1,000 times higher than the mercury concentration in the outdoor atmosphere.
You should know that the mercury thermometer used in the average household has a mercury content of 0.5g. Once the 0.5g of mercury volatilizes in the air, it may enter the human body through the respiratory tract, causing dizziness, coughing, nasal mucosal damage, etc., and in severe cases, chest tightness and shortness of breath, trembling hands and feet, and even life-threatening.
In the process of checking the information, Wen Wen's father found that chronic poisoning and injuries caused by breaking the thermometer abound every year.
According to doctors, the harm of mercury mainly stems from air evaporation, and generally speaking, if a child bites through the mercury thermometer, mercury will enter the digestive tract and generally will not cause mercury poisoning.
03. After the baby bites the thermometer, the correct treatment method should be kept in mind
First of all, from the child's point of view
Once the child is found to have bitten through the mercury thermometer, parents should first check the child's mouth and guide the child to spit out the mercury into a sealed bottle of water, which can further reduce the evaporation of mercury.
Then stimulate the child's throat to induce vomiting, if the baby can't spit out mercury, let him drink milk or egg white immediately, which can delay the body's absorption of mercury, so as to protect the gastric mucosa.
However, Xiaofan's mother also heard from the doctor that milk and egg whites can only be treated urgently. For the sake of the child's health, it is necessary to send the child to the hospital in time after emergency treatment.
It is worth reminding everyone that it is the season of high incidence of cold and fever, and after my parents have taken my body temperature again, it is best to take away the mercury thermometer in time to prevent the child from biting or swallowing it by mistake.
Secondly, from the point of view of disposal
When the child breaks the mercury thermometer, the window should be opened quickly for ventilation, and if the home is heated, the heating should be turned off first to minimize the volatilization of mercury in the air;
Then put on a mask, gloves, and use a small shovel or cardboard, tape or cotton swabs to collect mercury and glass debris left on the ground. Do not use a mop or broom to clean it up, as this will increase the diffusion area of mercury.
It is important to note that during the process of collecting mercury, you should move quickly and keep your hands in direct contact with the mercury as much as possible. If your hands are accidentally stained with mercury, you can simply unscrew the water pipe and rinse it under running water.
Next, the mercury collected into the airtight bottle should not be poured down the drain or thrown into the trash, but can be handed over to the environmental protection staff, taking care that the whole collection process should be as fast as possible.
If there is no sulfur powder at home, you can sprinkle some sulfur powder on the ground with mercury to reduce the toxicity of mercury; if there is no sulfur powder at home, if there is alcohol and iodine, you can also mix alcohol and iodine to smoke the room; you can also use bleaching powder to rinse the floor, which can also play a role in removing mercury.
In general, when a child breaks or bites a mercury thermometer, parents should not panic and should promptly and correctly handle the procedures for first aid to reduce the harm caused by mercury.
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