# ?



## epretot

I broke one of those led bulbs on a job today. I didn't clean it up because I'm not certified to do so. 

The home owner is having difficulty understanding my unwillingness to clean it up.

What would you do?


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## Wildbill7145

LED=Light emitting diode. They don't contain lead or mercury.

I'd get right back there and clean it up.


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## PNW Painter

If you're really concerned wear your respirator and a pair a nitrile gloves when you clean it up.

If LED's contained materials harmful to your health they'd have to print a warning on box. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Wildbill7145

Now I'm wondering if epretot meant a cfl light? That's a different story. They do contain a very minor amount of mercury. If that's the case, look here:

https://www.epa.gov/cfl/cleaning-broken-cfl#qi


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## epretot

So there's no led in them? Weird.


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## Wildbill7145

I think I'm/we're being punked.


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## CApainter

Good job epretot. You've just rendered a fifteen mile radius, un-inhabitable.


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## chrisn

CApainter said:


> Good job epretot. You've just rendered a fifteen mile radius, un-inhabitable.


Let alone causing almost certain death within days:whistling2:


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## Wildbill7145

chrisn said:


> Let alone causing almost certain death within days:whistling2:


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## lilpaintchic

I'd call on the led abatement crew.


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## PACman

www.epa.org. I'm sure they'll want to know all about it and they'll rush right out there to make sure you hire a crew that will charge you $10,000.00 to get it cleaned up. 

I saw them close a school for 3 days once because someone found a gram of mercury in a bathroom stall. We used to play with the stuff! And I turned out ok.


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## Wildbill7145

PACman said:


> www.epa.org. I'm sure they'll want to know all about it and they'll rush right out there to make sure you hire a crew that will charge you $10,000.00 to get it cleaned up.
> 
> I saw them close a school for 3 days once because someone found a gram of mercury in a bathroom stall. We used to play with the stuff! And I turned out ok.


What was a gram of mercury doing in a bathroom stall? Not sure I want to know.


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## Gough

PACman said:


> www.epa.org. I'm sure they'll want to know all about it and they'll rush right out there to make sure you hire a crew that will charge you $10,000.00 to get it cleaned up.
> 
> I saw them close a school for 3 days once because someone found a gram of mercury in a bathroom stall. We used to play with the stuff! And I turned out ok.


.........


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## epretot

Gough said:


> .........


I was thinking the same thing. Glad I didn't have to be the one to point it out. Well said.


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## PACman

Gough said:


> .........


HEEEY! MODS! ah crap!


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## DeanV

I remember having a half full empty film canister container of mercury that I floated coins on and stuff when I was in elementary school. My brother once threw some acid on it to see what it would do because "what is the point of having it if you are not going to do something with it". Thankfully mercury is stable and rather inert. That could have been bad.


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## Gough

I'm starting to see a common thread here. A lot of painters seemed to have played with Mercury when they were young. Coincidence? I think not. Here's a quote from a report on mercury poisoning published in 1946.


"The man affected is easily upset and embarrassed, loses all joy in life and lives in constant fear of being dismissed from his job. He has a sense of timidity and may lose self control before visitors. Thus, if one stops to watch such a man in a factory, he will sometimes throw down his tools and turn in anger on the intruder, saying he cannot work if watched. Occasionally a man is obliged to give up work because he can no longer take orders without losing his temper or, if he is a foreman, because he has no patience with men under him. Drowsiness, depression, loss of memory and insomnia may occur, but hallucinations, delusions and mania are rare."

Sounds like the typical painter to me. Since felt hats are less popular these days
and produced by a different process, we may need to update the adage: "Mad as a painter."

I should get extra bonus points for an obscure cultural reference to "Alice in Wonderland."


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## chrisn

Gough said:


> I'm starting to see a common thread here. A lot of painters seemed to have played with Mercury when they were young. Coincidence? I think not. Here's a quote from a report on mercury poisoning published in 1946.
> 
> 
> "The man affected is easily upset and embarrassed, loses all joy in life and lives in constant fear of being dismissed from his job. He has a sense of timidity and may lose self control before visitors. Thus, if one stops to watch such a man in a factory, he will sometimes throw down his tools and turn in anger on the intruder, saying he cannot work if watched. Occasionally a man is obliged to give up work because he can no longer take orders without losing his temper or, if he is a foreman, because he has no patience with men under him. Drowsiness, depression, loss of memory and insomnia may occur, but hallucinations, delusions and mania are rare."
> 
> Sounds like the typical painter to me. Since felt hats are less popular these days
> and produced by a different process, we may need to update the adage: "Mad as a painter."
> 
> I should get extra bonus points for an obscure cultural reference to "Alice in Wonderland."


Maybe that explains my problem, I played with mercury a lot when young:blink:


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## Wildbill7145

chrisn said:


> Maybe that explains my problem, I played with mercury a lot when young:blink:


Noticing a trend here. Where were you guys getting mercury to play with when you were kids? This is totally bizarre to me. Never heard of it before.


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## Gough

Wildbill7145 said:


> Noticing a trend here. Where were you guys getting mercury to play with when you were kids? This is totally bizarre to me. Never heard of it before.


I've heard...that mercury thermometers were a source for small amounts, but that salvaged mercury switches were like the Mother Lode.


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## slinger58

Pretty sure I got my mercury from broken thermometers. I was in junior high, so that would have been the late sixties. As for the effects of handling mercury, I consider myself a fairly well adjusted a$$hole, thank-you very much.


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## Wildbill7145

Gough said:


> I've heard...that mercury thermometers were a source for small amounts, but that salvaged mercury switches were like the Mother Lode.


I don't have fond memories of mercury switches. Had an old Chevy Caprice Classic many years ago that had a light in the trunk that ran on a mercury switch. Battery kept getting drained for months. Went over every aspect of the electrical system I could think of. Many times.

One day a grizzled old mechanic climbed in the trunk, curled up and told me to close the door. Mercury switch was stuck on so the light was on all the time, even when the trunk door was closed. Man was a genius. The one thing I hadn't thought of.

Yes, I let him out of the trunk.


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## PACman

I got mine in a chemistry set my mom bought me at Montgomery Wards for christmas one year. I never got the one with uranium in it. What a bummer.


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## DeanV

Friend of mine had a dad that taught chemistry. That was my source. Late 80's.


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## CApainter

I typically get my mercury from fish.


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## chrisn

My older brother had a big blob of it, maybe the size of a quarter. Where it came from? Don't know. I do know that our parents allowed us to play with it, without getting smacked upside the head.:whistling2:


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## PACman

I'm sure there is a few grams of it still in the hardwood floor of my old bedroom if anyone really wants some.


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## Wildbill7145

PACman said:


> I'm sure there is a few grams of it still in the hardwood floor of my old bedroom if anyone really wants some.


I'm 100% sure nobody wants to go hang out with you in your old bedroom while you remove a few grams of mercury from the floor. However, I absolutely stand to be corrected.

How much would a gram of mercury go for these days? 10$, like the old days?

Stuck in the 80's.


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## Gough

Wildbill7145 said:


> I'm 100% sure nobody wants to go hang out with you in your old bedroom while you remove a few grams of mercury from the floor. However, I absolutely stand to be corrected.
> 
> How much would a gram of mercury go for these days? 10$, like the old days?
> 
> Stuck in the 80's.


If you want a whole flask, the last price I could find was about $150, about $2/pound.

Next to the notional 42-gallon "barrel" of oil, my favorite unit for a commodity is the 76-pound flask of mercury.


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## PACman

Gough said:


> If you want a whole flask, the last price I could find was about $150, about $2/pound.
> 
> Next to the notional 42-gallon "barrel" of oil, my favorite unit for a commodity is the 76-pound flask of mercury.


just stay away from the "shots" of mercury!


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## PACman

Wildbill7145 said:


> I'm 100% sure nobody wants to go hang out with you in your old bedroom while you remove a few grams of mercury from the floor. However, I absolutely stand to be corrected.
> 
> How much would a gram of mercury go for these days? 10$, like the old days?
> 
> Stuck in the 80's.


From the mercury in the floor gaps to the gallon of industrial strength DDT corroded to the basement floor(still full) to the stainless steel/asbestos panel behind the stove I'm pretty sure the EPA will make sure I own that house for quite some time. God knows what is in the attic! I haven't been up there since my dad insulated it in the late 60's! In fact no one has. I may be the only one alive that knows where the attic door actually is.


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## Wildbill7145

PACman said:


> From the mercury in the floor gaps to the gallon of industrial strength DDT corroded to the basement floor(still full) to the stainless steel/asbestos panel behind the stove I'm pretty sure the EPA will make sure I own that house for quite some time. God knows what is in the attic! I haven't been up there since my dad insulated it in the late 60's! In fact no one has. I may be the only one alive that knows where the attic door actually is.


Git up there son!


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## chrisn

Wildbill7145 said:


> Git up there son!


Hell yes:thumbsup:


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## epretot

chrisn said:


> Hell yes:thumbsup:


He's afraid.


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## PACman

epretot said:


> He's afraid.


Damn right I'm afraid! We haven't seen aunt Millie since right around then!
and there is that strange brown stain in the ceiling.


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