[Noisebridge-discuss] mercury on the table?

Sai Emrys noisebridge at saizai.com
Sun Jun 28 04:29:19 UTC 2009


On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 8:55 PM, Sai Emrys<noisebridge at saizai.com> wrote:
> Calcium sulfide

Evidently this stuff is used in homeopathy (if you feel like having it
in concentrations of one atom per galaxy).

I wasn't able to find any good sources of the real stuff short of bona
fide lab supply places - e.g.
https://www.colonialscientific.com/OScatalog/index.php?products_id=128599&source=googleps
($80 for 25 GM). And it's moderately hazardous in its own right.

> Sodium thiosulphate wash

Evidently this is part of photographic fixer - though the commercial
fixers I've looked up have multiple other ingredients (whose
interaction w/ mercury I don't know and wouldn't care to risk). But
it's also used independently.

IIRC someone was intending to set up a darkroom under the stairs, so
it's at least possible we already have this.

If we don't, there's a local shop that sells it straight (as powder -
we'd probably have to add water to make a wash) @ $8/lb:

http://www.photosupply.com/browse.cfm/4,4860.html

436 Bryant Street
San Francisco, CA
(415) 495-8640

Monday - Friday 9:30am - 6:00pm
Saturday 9:30am - 5:00pm
Sunday Closed

It's also easily available online. So it'd be good if someone can go
by there Monday and get a pound or two; it's cheap.

Please note that sodium thiosulphate is itself mildly hazardous -
http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/s5230.htm - so care should be
used (i.e. clear the area during cleanup, ventilate, wear and dispose
of gloves - the usual).

Whoever knows where the mercury was or was likely to have spread /
spilled / scattered: spread this stuff over the contaminated area, let
it sit for a little bit to bind, then wipe it all up (treating it as
hazardous waste) and rinse a few times with plain water (treating
runoff ditto).

On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 9:08 PM, Jacob Appelbaum<jacob at appelbaum.net> wrote:
>> An accident, IMHO, is something that you can neither predict nor prevent.
>
> Unless you broke it or were there, how can you say that this event
> wasn't an accident?

Very simple: it's only an accident if you view it in an extremely
narrow perspective (e.g. sure, the person didn't *mean* to break
whatever it was).

If you view it as "stuff that happens when you do hardware hacking",
it's not an accident, it's a predictable occurrence, and should be
treated that way. Eventually someone or other will break a vial of
nasty shit, get solder in places it shouldn't be, etc. It's our job as
a group to make sure that the setup is such that that is unlikely to
happen (by having good training, workspaces, etc - which I think we
do), and that when it does, we handle it with ease.

If you talk to cops (or traffic safety people), you'll note that they
don't believe in "vehicular accidents" - because they see a bunch of
'em, and they see the commonalities of where people could have
prevented or ameliorated them by behaving more responsibly. I happen
to agree with this perspective.

Please note: I am not contrasting "accidental" to "intentional", but
to "predictable". Nobody claims malice, just that both the spill and
the inability to clean it up properly ASAP was avoidable.

- Sai



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