Knowledge and attitude regarding mercury handling and disposal in students

The present cross-sectional study was carried out in higher secondary schools of the science specialty in Ahmedabad. A total of 653 students (196 taught in English, 395 taught in Gujarati and 62 taught in Hindi) from seven schools were included. The interview technique was used for data collection using a predesigned questionnaire. A total of 457 (70%) were boys and 196 (30%) were girls. About two-thirds of the study participants had handled mercury at sometime in their life and home was the common place where it was handled. More than half of the Hindi-taught students did not know about its physical appearance. The majority of the Gujarati-taught students knew that mercury is harmful to health whereas one-third of the English- and Hindi-taught students considered mercury to be harmless. A total of 46% of the Gujarati-taught and 44% of the English-taught students had encountered spilled mercury at sometime in their life and 21.6% of English-taught and 25% of Hindi-taught students had either smelled or played with spilled mercury. More than two-thirds of the English- and Hindi-taught students recommended the usual cleaning method whereas 81.8% of Gujarati-taught students suggested a special method should be used for the disposal of spilled mercury. The majority of the students did not know whether mercury could be substituted by a harmless substance.