http://www.qando.net/ - Good Grief ...

CARMEL, N.Y. (AP) - It was quite a New Year’s Eve at the home of Richard Berger in Carmel - in Putnam County. Someone in the house broke a rectal thermometer and the family called 911 around 10:30 to report the small mercury spill.

Several dozen volunteers from the Carmel Fire Department responded to the house on Brookview Drive.

Fire Chief Darryl Johnson says mercury is a hazardous material that can cause stomach problems if inhaled.

Men wearing protective gear used wet sponges to clean up the puddle.

It was packaged and brought to the Carmel firehouse where the county health department will dispose of it today.

The Berger family was not hurt.

Several dozen? In fact the headline says 100 responded. To a broken thermometer. Heh ... makes you wonder how we’ve survived as a species to this point.

We’re going to scare ourselves to death someday.

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If they have the resources to respond to that, one might think they’re over funded, over staffed, and really really bored. Fire some volunteers please and give those people their money back. Of course, they could just be really nice in that area, but again it is NY.

Written By: Ike
URL: http://

But, imagine the embarrasment of the subject of all of this....

Written By: Bithead
URL: http://

Ike, man, cut them some slack.
New Year’s Eve(think party).
Emergency call for broken RECTAL thermometer(Who on earth uses a rectal thermometer, and why would it be an emergency?).
Boredom(as you say) in a small town.
Vivid, perhaps alcohol-fueled imaginations.

Written By: timactual
URL: http://

When I was a kid, we used to take mercury and rub it on a penny to make it look like a dime (at a glance). Never could get anyone to take it - they’d pulled the same stunt as a kid and knew better.

I also got to reduce mercuric oxide down to pure mercury in my high school chemistry lab.

I guess that explains why I’m now a blithering idiot with a over 40 years of design experience and 4 patents.

Jeez, the stuff certainly shouldn’t be played with, the way I did, but this response sure defines the word "overkill".

Written By: bud
URL: http://

I can remember, as a child, other kids putting mercury in their mouths, like chewing gum. I may have done it, too, but I can’t seem to remember.

Written By: timactual
URL: http://

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