We have been forced to get rid of our mercury barometer and try to replace it
with an aneroid type, less than satisfactory from my point of view. We have
also been forced to retire all mercury thermometers, The electronic devices
are not nearly so obvious in what they actually do, and are expensive. the
shorter column on alcohol thermometers make the reading less precise. I'm not
happy! The school rented (at great expense) a mercury vapor sniffer and
scoured our lab for over three hours. They "knew" they would get positives in
the physics lab due to reported previous spills and breaks. They could find no
detectable traces!