According to the epa elemental mercury and all of its components are toxic exposure to excessive levels can permanently damage or fatally injure the brain and kid neys pathways are through inha lation absorption and ingestion.
Tartan flooring mercury.
History of mercury in gym floors in the 1960s 3m introduced a gym flooring material called tartan that was touted as an improvement over old wood floors for gymnasiums as well as outdoor track and field facilities.
Most of these floors seem to have been installed between the 1960s and 1990s.
Other manufacturers followed 3m to develop similar products.
Us epa reports that certain polyurethane flooring materials installed between 1962 and today contain mercury.
Track flooring and other synthetic rubber like gym floors originally marketed by other manufacturers as chemturf or tartan may contain mercury.
Concerns related to gym floors are mostly related to airborne vapors.
The mercury floor problem and health effects rubber like polyurethane floors using 1 000 to 2 000 parts per million ppm of phenyl cercuric acetate pma catalyst have been installed in schools and elsewhere since the 1960s.
Floor covering is a solid rubber like polymer floor covering that was developed in the 1960 s.
Bulk sampling is a method that involves testing the actual flooring material to determine if mercury is present.
The type of flooring that may have mercury in it is a synthetic rubber like type of floor composed of polyurethane.
Pma breaks down and releases odorless colorless mercury vapor.