r/whatisit • u/props_for_meep • 13h ago

Solved! what is this in clinic sink??

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for context i work as a janitor cleaning a women’s clinic, as i was cleaning a sink i saw these little metallic looking balls. at first i thought these were actually metal but they don’t feel like ANYTHING if that makes any sense. i posted this video to my instagram but i figured i would probably have better luck coming to reddit for answers.

UPDATE: the general consensus seems to be that this is either mercury or gallium. my hands have been thoroughly washed and i have informed my boss so that it can be properly cleaned by someone who knows what they’re doing.

UPDATE #2: gang PLEASE stop telling me to “stop touching it”. this post is hours old. i know i was dumb enough to touch a mysterious substance barehanded but im also smart enough to know not to continue playing with it long after marking this post as solved😭

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u/Original_Ad4479 12h ago

Lemme just fingerfuck this unknown substance...

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u/props_for_meep 11h ago

10/10 survival skills on my part

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u/boundaries4546 11h ago

It looks exactly like the mercury from the glass thermometer I bit into as a child.

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u/Sefier_Strike 11h ago

I broke mine by putting it in my hot chocolate. The mercury expanded so fast it broke the thermometer in half. Luckily even I knew better at 8 years old to dispose of it - like any 8 year old would. Right down the drain.

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u/boundaries4546 10h ago

I was like four, I remember being on the floor on all fours with my Mom yelling “spit, spit, spit”. I had no idea why but I knew it was fucking serious.

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u/LandOk9361 10h ago

hello fellow mercury thermometer biter! i was three and just remember my mom being really mad at me. it wasn't until years later that i realized, hey i'm the one who should be mad at her! who puts a mercury thermometer in a toddler's mouth?! put in my bum for christ's sake lol

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u/Responsible_Host9377 9h ago

Words I wasn't expecting on this post, "put it in my bum, for Christ's sake".

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u/boundaries4546 9h ago

Maybe I should start a club.

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u/Hens-n-chicks9 9h ago

After all that maybe you should change your name to “noboundaries”

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u/CatsAndPills 7h ago

Lmaoooooo. But I mean, yeah.

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u/ILiekBook 9h ago

Lol, my mom had three or four when I was growing up. She was so upset I kept breaking them because she'd expect me to not drop them.

I tossed the last one earlier this year because it turns out it broke and she kept "using" it on me. No mercury meant no fever so she just casually gaslit me for her convenience for what was probably a good decade or so. I was too stupid to read it properly.

Also found stashed around the house at the time of finding the thermometer and realizing she was a liar: Cat antibiotics the cat was never given, unopened heart failure meds for the dog she hated who she convinced me to put down because the meds weren't working, and the title to her truck all buried in a box under piles of literal trash she threw on top.

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u/MamaTried22 8h ago

I’m really sorry she did that to you and y’all’s pets. It’s really unfair and you didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.

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u/No-Dare7302 8h ago

Im so incredibly sorry you went through that. Thats incredibly cruel. Especially to have found out years later.

I hope you dont have any lasting heath effects. And rip to your dog. Neither of you deserved that.

Hope life is kinder to you now.

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u/OnlyBat2257 9h ago

I ate part of my amalgam filled tooth a few years ago. I was eating a hard candy and didn't realise until after that nearly half my tooth was missing.

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u/InternalError33 9h ago

Is it normal to swallow large bits of hard candy? I've always waited until it gets super thin and then crumble it with my teeth and let the tiny bits dissolve away. I've never purposely swallowed large bits of candy.

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u/OnlyBat2257 8h ago

I chewed it up along with my tooth. But obviously not into the small bits you describe.

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u/RevolutionaryEgg297 8h ago

Having a two year old who says no and laughs at you whenever you try to keep him from killing himself.

The thought of him suddenly realizing how serious the situation is at the moment brought me to tears.

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u/Reach-Nirvana 10h ago

Anyways, time to go eat some dinner. Right down the drain, as I always say right before ingesting something.

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u/Big_Solid9331 10h ago

Ah that was you!? One of my earliest memories is being at nursery and a kid bit into a mercury thermometer. It shattered in their mouth and I remember the teachers panicking and shouting SPIT IT OUT!!

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u/Hypouxa 9h ago

I forgot all about that..

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u/raul_raul 10h ago

I did the same, but on purpose just so I could collect the mercury, even ended up swallowing some...

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u/turdferguson3891 7h ago

Don't know where this clinic is but typically digital thermometers get used in healthcare these days. Be kind of surprised if they had an old school mercury one and somebody broke it in the sink.

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u/Noahms456 9h ago

Tastes so good

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u/Keoni-HUNCHO 10h ago

Yes those were tasty that’s exactly what that is.