Heh... some of the kids in my class used to "accidentally drop" mercury thermometers during science class in middle school so we could play with the mercury on the ground. The kid-who-tried-too-hard-to-be-cool had an unfortunate habit of breaking the red-dyed alcohol (I think) filled ones, which weren't nearly as cool. Needless to say, Hazmat wasn't involved.

Man, when that family gets the bill they're going to feel like that broken thermometer got used on each of them for its original purpose.

Any party where a rectal thermometer is broken is quite a party!

That's odd, because even the EPA doesn't consider a mercury spill from a thermometer big enough to require a professional cleanup. It looks as if the local yokels overreacted just a bit...okay, a lot.

I used to crack open thermometers and "silent" light switches and roll the mercury around in the palms of my hands.

I remember once there was an accident on a highway near me and some motor oil spilled. They had the damn hazmat crew out in their yellow suits, with drums of detergent... It was ridiculous.

A few years ago I remember hearing on the radio that a thermometer was accidentally broken in the chemistry lab of a local high school, and they evacuated the school. Not the class, but the WHOLE FREAKIN' SCHOOL. A HAZMAT crew was called to clean the few drops of mercury, while countless parents had to leave their jobs early to pick up their contaminated punk kids.

Man, I remember even as recently as 1990 when we also played with the stuff on our desks. As far as I know, none of us died that day.

"The Berger family was not hurt."

I wouldn't be too sure about that. My guess is that SOMEONE was hurt, but didn't want to admit exactly how the thermometer broke.