Provided they are not broken there should not be a problem.  The mercury is safely contained within the glass.  It would be sensible to have a procedure in place for dealing with breakages and you might want to have a mercury spill kit to hand (especially if you have a lot of them).  An example of a spill kit is:

http://www.wms.co.uk/Mercury_Spill_Kit_(Mercurisorb-Roth).html?V=&SID=6001&SSID=6969740&GID=8975

But there are lots about.

I would also put a hazard note on your object documentation to say that the object contains mercury.  Also note that their are rules/restrictions on the transport of objects containing mercury.

Trevor Reynolds
Collections Registrar
English Heritage, 36 Hospital Fields Road, York, YO10 4DZ
Telephone +44 (0)1904 610322



-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list on behalf of L Fischer
Sent: Sun 2008-12-07 18:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: mercury thermometers

What is the museum standard for having mercury thermometers in their collections and what precautions are taken?

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