Edit: Fergasun Broke an Oven Thermometer... turns out it's not too toxic...

[Fergasun]

I just broke a stainless steel oven thermometer while I was cooking up a steak (marinated it the whole day). Needless to say I'm freaking out about potential Mercury in my kitches... I can't find any information on this thing and I can't tell if Mercury leaked into my oven/kitchen... seriously I'm freakin...

[Corcaigh]

I just broke a stainless steel oven thermometer while I was cooking up a steak (marinated it the whole day). Needless to say I'm freaking out about potential Mercury in my kitches... I can't find any information on this thing and I can't tell if Mercury leaked into my oven/kitchen... seriously I'm freakin...

Bulb thermometers based on mercury don't belong in the kitchen. I've not seen an oven thermometer that uses mercury. Why do you think yours does?

[PCS]

Have to know what it looks like for once. I believe most stainless steel oven thermometers that have a dial are a spring type of thermometer. A mercury one would use mercury to read out the temp. Like the thermometer you used to use to check your temp with back in the day. They do make those.

[jnhay]

Just see if it tastes like mercury.

http://www.pharmcatalyst.com/diseasehealth/mercurythermometerspub.pharm

"Mercury oven thermometers, available in gourmet supply shops" Found this on about.com. If you got it at Target or something, I'd guess it didn't have mercury in it.

[Fergasun]

Phew... one of my friends said the same thing... it looks like... this, except it was made by Pyrex.

I guess my dumb assumption was that mercury would be common in kitchen thermometers was wrong. I just melted off the plastic? face (not sure that should happen). So there was some melted material on the face and I didn't know what it was... freaked me out...

Now my wife is pissed because I freaked out... doesn't she realize I don't want the 2-year old around when there could be Mercury around?

[Fergasun]

I like how the one I linked to says "shatterproof plastic lens"... guess I shouldn't have placed it in the oven... it was Pyrex...

[jnhay]

Haha. Your 2 year old isn't wearing a hazmat suit right now hopefully?

[Fergasun]

Well:

1) I didn't smell any toxic fumes (not that my spicy-dijon-horseradish marinade would've masked it)

2) My arms aren't numb or showing any problems after removing thermometer and throwing it away

So I think its fine... just a little freaked out now... I feel like a dumb blond...

[PCS]

Now my wife is pissed because I freaked out... doesn't she realize I don't want the 2-year old around when there could be Mercury around?

You might have been better off with the mercury. Because now for the next 10 years minimum, the Mrs. can now say " Yeah. Well, do you remember that time when you freaked out and..........." (It's a rule ).

[No_Pressure]

Now my wife is pissed because I freaked out... doesn't she realize I don't want the 2-year old around when there could be Mercury around?

Didn't she tell you that small children and deadly substances go together, as Forrest Gump would say "like peas and carrots"?

[Larry]

If it's got a dial, then it's just about guaranteed that the mechanism that drives the dial (the actual temperature sensor) is a bi-metalic strip. (A spring-like coil that's actually built of two different metals, which expand at different rates. Since one "side" of the strip expands more than the other, it causes the strip to bend.)

Now, the "probe" (the part that you stick in the meat) is likely a heat pipe. It's a metal tube filled with a working fluid. (Something like Freon. Some fluid, under a bit of pressure, which boils at some temperature near the temperature that it'll be working at.)

That working fluid may not be healthy to eat, but it's real unlikely that it will contain mercury. (In fact, I'd say it's likely that, if the tube was breached, and the internal pressure released, the fluid almost certainly evaporated. Maybe 20 years from now it will be attacking the ozone layer, but you don't have to worry about eating it.)

And that working fluid is likely the only part of the whole thing that isn't solid metal. (Except for the plastic viewing window.)

[Fergasun]

Well 20 minutes and she's still not back... she was pissed because I went on here to find out since this was an instance where Google was useless... did you hear that google... ES was better than you!

[Larry]

You might have been better off with the mercury. Because now for the next 10 years minimum, the Mrs. can now say " Yeah. Well, do you remember that time when your freaked out and..........." (It's a rule ).

BTW, now we'll tease you, too.

Tailgate rule.

[Corcaigh]

Those type of thermometers do not use mercury. They use two types of metal with different expansion rates, and the difference in expansion is what determines temperature.

[Fergasun]

I'm just gonna replace it with a digital probe eventually... bigger things to worry about than poison now... I hate it when girls act irrational... thanks for all the informative responses...