stupid thing to do with broken mercury thermomter - help? advice?

[gilamama]

so in the bathroom in the middle of the night my dd reached for a tissue while was taking her temp under the arm with a mercury thermomiter. CRASH! So I swept up the glass and little did i know some little balls of mercury. So then I realized i had put mercury into the water supply. Felt stupid, guilty. THen i looked into the toilet and saw that the mercury balls hadn't gone down. What should i do now. I'll probably fish them out with my hands. Is that dangerous and what should I do with them then? HELP!

[oneKnight]

It's not supposed to hurt to touch it so much as it's bad to BREATHE it in the air - which you can't see. So you really need to ventilate the bathroom. I read online somewhere about it, so try google.

Usually they say to contain everything you can in a plastic baggie (double bagged) and your city should have some way to dispose of it. Ours says to put it in the recycle bin bagged and labled. Call and ask

Why were you putting the glass in the toilet anyway? :