Store these items in a way that prevents them from breaking, and don’t let children use them. Ask an adult who’s not pregnant to throw away any broken thermometers or fluorescent light bulbs.Don’t use a vacuum cleaner to clean spilled mercury.Be sure your dentist knows you’re pregnant before you have any dental work done. Don’t have any mercury fillings removed unless they’re broken or damaged. You may be able to have a filling that doesn’t contain mercury.

If you need to get a filling, ask your dentist about filling options.

These include shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish.

Don’t eat fish that contain high amounts of mercury.

How can you keep yourself safe from mercury?

Eating or drinking food or water contaminated with it.

It’s a shiny, silver-colored substance used to make dental fillings, fever thermometers and other products.Fish get mercury from the water they swim in and from eating other fish that have mercury in them. It can fall from the air back to earth and build up in oceans, lakes, rivers and streams.It’s also released through industrial processes, like burning waste or burning coal in power plants. It’s released into the air when it’s spilled or when something that contains it breaks. It can be a colorless, odorless, poisonous vapor in the air.Babies exposed to mercury in the womb can have brain damage and hearing and vision problems. How serious the damage is depends on how much mercury you’re exposed to. It also can cause hearing and vision problems. Mercury can damage many parts of your body, including your lungs, kidneys and nervous system (that includes the brain, spinal cord and nerves). If you come in contact with high levels of mercury during pregnancy, it can cause real problems for you and your baby.

Signs of mercury poisoning