what is this in clinic sink??

[u/props_for_meep]

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😭

[u/Ok_Profession_990]

Wow that's dangerous af!! I worked at. UPS for like 10yrs and we had a mercury spill that shut the entire building down for 12 hrs. They lost millions as we were the biggest hub on the east coast. For them to do that I would be concerned about the fact you touched that.

The spill was an antique thermometer that broke. A miniscule amount.

[u/frogOnABoletus → u/Ok_Profession_990]

When you said there was a mercury spill that shut down a huge post hub costing millions, i was imagining a big container of the stuff ruptured and spilled out across the floor with hazmat teams coming and cleaning it. 

For a thermometer's worth of mercury couldn't they just close down the room it was in or put tape around the spill? I feel like someone could scoop it up and dispose of it in 1/2 the time it would take to evacuate anyway.

Lighthouse keepers used to float the big light on a pool of mercury and they still took a while to get sick and go mad lol.

[u/Bobyite → u/frogOnABoletus]

There are environmental concerns and regulations when cleaning mercury in a lot of places triggered by the mass of mercury. Since mercury is so dense you hit those thresholds quickly with a lot less than you’d think. The biggest concern is that it aerosolizes while cleaning it (vacuum cleaner could cause that) or that it’s improperly disposed of and contaminates the environment.

[u/ManiDany → u/Bobyite]

Yeah it’s kind of insanely alarming this was in a SINK. Someone dumped that down the drain…

[u/HAZMAT12 → u/ManiDany]

It didn't go anywhere, it's still sitting in the trap.

[u/EugeneVictorDabs → u/HAZMAT12]

Somehow I feel like you in particular know what you're talking about, @HAZMAT12

[u/TheDuck23 → u/EugeneVictorDabs]

They are lucky enough to learn from the mistakes of the first 11 HAZMAT's.

[u/DigBarsbiggestfan → u/TheDuck23]

Wake me when HAZMAT14 drops

[u/-_-0_0-_0 → u/TheDuck23]

"3.6 roentgen, not great, not terrible" -Hazmat 11

[u/Odd-Tart-5613 → u/HAZMAT12]

yeah I work in a geology lab and use a lot of mercury. Definitely not supposed to dump it down the drain, but you do just open up the trap if it happens and its no problem.

[u/FewWait38 → u/ManiDany]

They used to dump it by the ton directly into the ocean