James Sweet wrote:

"Art" wrote in message

Certianly hope you did not mind handling the mercury (HG) during that
procedure, BTW did you do in on the kitchen table also?

There's very little mercury in one of those lamps. I wouldn't sprinkle it in
my food, but there's no need for the paranoia about it either. An old
thermometer contains hundreds of times the mercury.

Our silly excessively risk-averse society has demonised such things without
adequate reason.

Now, if you were mining the stuff, that was different.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almadén

Graham