Safe to store mercury batteries in the fridge?

Is it safe to store mercury batteries in the fridge where I also

store food? I used to store my px640's (4) in the fridge but then a

camera repairman told me that this was not safe since it may cause

contamination in the food. I do not know enough about mercury

contamination to have any intelligible opinion about this but I never

heard anyone else say the same in the iternet forums where mercury

batteries are frequently the topic of discussion. I would like to

hear what you think about this. And, does storing these batteries in

the fridge have any advantage anyway?

Elemental (liquid) mercury has a signficant vapour pressure at room temperature. The vapour pressure would be lowered by cooling it down but it would still exist. I don't know the fraction of elemental mercury compared to the total mercury in these cells but the contained space in the refridgerator combined with the vapour pressure is of some concern.

 

I heard that a chemist in our department died from mercury poisoning years ago, before I was there. This was from a massive exposure to dimethyl mercury (the most toxic form) and a horrific way to die. FYI bacteria convert elemental mercury in the environment to dimethyl mercury. This compound is a big problem because it is fat soluble and decomposes to a charged ion that is nearly impossible for the body to eliminate.

 

If you place the cells in tightly sealed bags it should be fine but its your call. I wouldn't have mercury near my kid's food.

I've kept my spare mercury batteries in the fridge since they first came out in the 1960's. The batteries themselves should be well sealed and are not likely to leak much vapor. I can also remember that back when I was in grade school and high school (class of '61) in science class the teacher would show us mercury as an example of a metal who's melting point was below normal room temperature, and we'd all get to roll little droplets of it around the palms of our hands with our bare fingers. I guess if it was really all that poisonous we'd all be dead instead of just a bit daft...LOL

 

Storing ANYTHING that functions due to a chemical reaction, whether film, batteries or food, will last longer at lower temperatures because it slows down the reaction.

I opened an old camera I bought on E-Bay and found a PX 13 battery inside. It is showing a creamy white substance around the seal. Whether it is leaking from the inside or corroding from the outside I don't know but this may be an indication that some seals weren't too good.

No offense Al, but the "we used to do this back in the day" argument doesn't really fly for me. Berk, buy an Al Kaplan T-shirt to see the effects ;) Sure the cells are sealed, but mercury batteries seem more prone to leak than any other type of cell. I've seen more cameras with disintigrated mercury cells that any other type.

 

In my line of work, I use all sorts of nasty carcinogenic, toxic, radioactive (you name it) chemicals and one of the key safety points is to NEVER bring them into potential contact with food that someone may ingest. Mercury is particularly toxic to children and developing fetuses. Consider this as well if you have kids/pregnancy. The effects of mercury toxicity are cumulative.

 

Mike (Ph.D. Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry)

Charles: this cell has leaked. Just take a little extra care when cleaning the cell. (good ventilation, gloves, wash hands, dispose of cleaning supplies carefully - same precautions for NiCd cells). The KOH electrolyte can be neutralized with a weak acetic acid (vinegar, stop bath) solution. There are recycling facilities that will take the dead cell. (the landfill is not a good place) Always take care with button cells to ensure they are stored where a small child will not ingest them.

 

Often the electrolyte wicks up the wires and causes additional damage to the camera. Wires can be replaced, corroded printed circuit boards are more problematic.

Sorry "when cleaning the cell" should read "when cleaning the battery compartment".

I am not storing the cells in the fridge anymore. I did store four Varta PX640's earlier this year for about two and a half months though in a plastic bag (plus original packaging) in the fridge. The batteries were not used but they were sure not new. I am sure it has been years since Varta stopped manifacturing them. Now I store the batteries in the box where I keep my other camera equipment. There are no kids/pregnants around here, I was a kid myself not too long ago:-)

 

I have been using the other pair (I have three pairs in total) since february and there is no indication it will die anytime soon. Looks like the other pairs will be around for a long time until they get any use. That is, if they don't start leaking before that.

Thanks for the informaton Mike

Mike is 100% right. I work in the food service industry, where just by the nature of the job I pay closer attention to the dos and don'ts of food handling. If a health inspector saw mercury batteries stored in one of my coolers he would shut me down and watch as every last bit of food in the cooler was disposed of. If you want to keep things like batteries or other toxic materials refrigerated buy a seperate refrigerator and mark it clearly as to what it contains.

 

David

Are there any safety issues involved w/storing film in the fridge?

Mercury batteries once were available is sizes to a "D-cell" in volume; used for references in electronic equipment. Most better equipment had a battery compartment that was well made; and had a containment area for leaks. Here I keep mercury batteries in the fridge; but have them in ziplock bags; then then are in a screw top plastic jar. <BR><BR>Your vastly greater risk with mercury is in eating certain fish. Most all the mercury in the food chain is thru fish. Coal burning power plants dump 49 tons of mercury a year; this is not regulated much. The top plants emit over 1000 lbs per year into the air. In 1998; the Southern Company was the top emitter; 11353 lbs of mercury. The mercury is in the raw coal; about 1/10 part per million roughly. This may not seem much; but one coal barge may have 3 million Lbs of coal. The big emitter states are Texas, Pennsylvania; Ohio; Illinois; Indiana; Alabama; West Virgina; Kentucky...The lowest is Alaska!<BR><BR>Consider the fish in your fridge too; it might just be a million times more risky to you than a mercury battery kept in a sealed jar.

" I guess if it was really all that poisonous we'd all be dead instead of just a bit daft...LOL"

 

Some of my colleagues at work are chemical scientists. One of them told me that there is one thing they really were very cautious with in their university labs: mercury. Incidents with free mercury were taken very seriously there.

Mercury concerns have been important in Japan for decades. The batteries sold there were Mercury free a decade before the USA added the reduced Mercury requirements. The fishing industry helped with reducing the mercury in batteries in Japan; to help reduce Mercury entering into the food chain. Mercury is/was also used as a preservative in vaccines; and as a preservative in some contact lens solutions. One can have a persons hair analyized for traces of Mercury. Dentists tend to be above a normal person's readings. Mercury poisioning from dental amalgams is claimed to linked to some chronic illnesses; by a few folks. Mercury poisioning is old hat; ie the "Mad Hatters" of a century or two ago had tremors; changes; speech problems. A rare form of Mercury is Dimethylmercury ; extremely dangerous stuff.

Kelly: Mercury is converted by various microbes to dimethyl mercury in the environment. Not as rare as you think. The mercury reductions you mention in Japan were in silver oxide/zinc cells which contain trace mercury.

 

To recycle an important principle in radiation safety with respect to exposures: ALARA - As Low As Reasonable Achievable. Makes good sense for mercury safety as well.

The Dimethylmercury I remember reading about killed off some researcher; who had latex gloves on; and was studying/researching mercury toxicity.<BR><BR>The earlier Alkaline batteries had mercury purposely added as an additive to the paste. Japan then made versions that had a radically less mercury requirement; then the USA caught up years later. In manufacturing of items made in the USA for export <b>to</b> Japan; we had to use the "less mercury" type Japanese batteries; in units sent to Japan. The USA had the higher mercury paste batteries; which were banned then in Japan.

There is one school/web that says the seals in mercury button cells fail quicker at freezing temps; I saw this several years ago on the web.

I have a separate fridge for such things. As kids, and I'm talking long ago, we used to smash those batteries with a hammer to get the mercury to ooze out. We used it to smear on our dimes to make them pretty and shiny. We carried our dimes in our pockets. To us, at the time, that mercury was some really fascinating stuff and no one told us it was poisonous. No one used to tell you anything! Now, I have problems that have forced me into retirement. More than a decade of tests and no diagnosis, no answers. The mercury? all the other nasties that we didn't know about? Who knows? I would advise just staying away from the damn things completely.

I wasn't advocasting that anyone today should let kids play with mercury. I was merely commenting on the way things were half a century ago. And yeah, I look like a nut in that picture on the T-shirt, no doubt about it! We were kidding around and if you saw all the pix taken that day you'd realize that I was hamming it up and "making faces". If you'd care to see a photograph depicting another side of me click on my name and go to my profile page. And no, I didn't vote for his brother.

Advocasting? Is that a new way of encouraging fish to jump onto a boat? Or an endless parade of political ads?

why not go the "green" route and use the substitute for mercury batteries? don't support the continued use of mercury. it is dangerous to produce products with it and it is dangerous to the environment when disposed of. just say no to mercury ;)

Relax Al! (note the wink) You know I'm a fan of your work.

Mercury batteries are not the first time that photographers have relied on mercury: In the early days of photography one of the early processes required photographers to develop their glass plates in the fumes of boiling mercury!

BTW, I store my mercury cells in a double layer of ziplock bags with a packet of silca gell in my fridge. Refrigeration is okay, but don't freeze them. The cells could rupture.

In the 40's, I used to read about photogs exposing film (b&w) to mercury fumes to boost their ASA speeds. Also amonia fumes were used for the same purpose.

Thomas Edison used mercury diffusion pumps to evacuate the glass containers used during the development of his incandescent light bulb. To increase pumping efficiency, he ordered his lab staff to raise the temperature of the mercury column. Upon realizing that himself and his entire staff were suffering the effects of mercury poisoning, he prescribed an antidote rather than lower the pumping temperature!