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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 duringthe 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, mercurythermometers could vanish from hospital wards within the next five or sixyears, marking the end of a 280-year era.The first successful mercury thermometer was created in 1714 by GabrielFahrenheit which eventually becamecommonplace in hospitals.
One leading campaigner against theuse of these mercury thermometers,B Blomenthal, of the Royal OldhamHospital near Manchester, has arguedthat there are high risks of breakageand poisoning of mercury thermometers which leads to the spreading ofinfection among patients because theyare re-usable.
"Everybody has become very conscious about mercury floating about,especially in neo-natal depftments," hesaid. "People feel that if we could use analternative that was as accurate, why notswitch?"
Among the alternatives is theTempadot, a plastic strip thermometercontaining organic chemicals in variousquantities which release a blue dye whenthey reach their different meltingpoints, thus indicating a patient'sbody temperature. Manufacturers ofthe Tempadot say it is just as accurateas its mercury predecessor - towithin 0. Vc. But, it is yet to be officiallytested.
However, a recent study in NursingTimes found that disposable thermometers are more accurate, cheaper andquicker than mercury devices.