Mercury thermometers coldshouldered

Mercury thermometers: on the w (Credit: Arvind Yadav / cse)MERCURY thermometers will become a
thing of the past in hospitals within the
next few years if trends favouring
alternative devices continue. National
Health Services (NHS) Supplies, the
special health authority in the UK which
provides goods and services for the
NHS, says, the number of mercury
thermometers which were in use in
hospitals, have almost halved during
the past five years.

In 1990, 1.5 million thermo-meters
were used in the UK. But this year
the total is 800,000. High street chemists
also report a demand for nonmercury thermometers, especially from
parents buying instruments for their
children, although the UK's biggest
chain, Boots, is not phasing out
mercury-based ones.
If this trend continues, mercury
thermometers could vanish from hospital wards within the next five or six
years, marking the end of a 280-year era.
The first successful mercury thermometer was created in 1714 by Gabriel
Fahrenheit which eventually became
commonplace in hospitals.

One leading campaigner against the
use of these mercury thermometers,
B Blomenthal, of the Royal Oldham
Hospital near Manchester, has argued
that there are high risks of breakage
and poisoning of mercury thermometers which leads to the spreading of
infection among patients because they
are re-usable.

"Everybody has become very conscious about mercury floating about,
especially in neo-natal depftments," he
said. "People feel that if we could use an
alternative that was as accurate, why not
switch?"

Among the alternatives is the
Tempadot, a plastic strip thermometer
containing organic chemicals in various
quantities which release a blue dye when
they reach their different melting
points, thus indicating a patient's
body temperature. Manufacturers of
the Tempadot say it is just as accurate
as its mercury predecessor - to
within 0. Vc. But, it is yet to be officially
tested.

However, a recent study in Nursing
Times found that disposable thermometers are more accurate, cheaper and
quicker than mercury devices.