Irrational fear of contact with mercury

The fear of even small amounts mercury is confusing to me. I can
remember playing with the mercury that was in a broken thermometer
several times when I was a child. And I'm not dead, or sick because of
it. Neither is my mother, who remembers playing with a good size ball
of the material back when she was in high school.

Now, the media and the EPA are terrifying people about a "trace" of mercury in
the new compact fluorescent lights that we're supposed to be using
instead of the incandescent bulbs that we've used for as long as most
people can remember - because the new CFLs are more energy efficient
(not to mention a lot more expensive).

And the EPA's 'disposal instructions' in the event of a CFL breaking are
just silly, imho. They say that when one breaks, you should clear the
area of all people, then turn off the air circulation systems. Then,
instead of using a broom or a vacuum, you're supposed to carefully,
while wearing heavy gloves, use two peices of cardboard to scoop the
broken material up and put it into a metal container to be taken to a
recycling center. Trouble is, those centers aren't everywhere - and
they won't always take it when you bring it in. So what then?

All of this for an admitted trace amount of mercury. That's insane.

I have to wonder if my mom and I are the only ones who remember playing
with mercury and don't have any ill effects from having done so. Anyone
else out there remember playing with it as a child? And if so, do you
have any health problems that you can trace directly back to mercury contact?

Testing results

Well, I retook the test --- and still have to take the d*** developmental math course next semester. And from what I'm seeing, I might have to take the same one that I just took and made A's in! And if that happens, I'm liable to go ballistic with someone. The test was on basic algebra, which isn't what we covered last semester!

I am not a happy camper at the moment. I'm ticked off that I have to take courses that don't give me any credits or grade points. And I still have to pay full price for those d*** classes, not to mention using my grant money to buy the books for it and pay the lab fees.

It's a rip off, if you ask me. And not fair in the least!

College testing

For those of you who aren't aware of it, I started back to school in January. I'm going back in September. Since it had been thirty years since I was last in school, I managed to get a low score on the math portion of the college placement test, and had to take 'developmental' (read "remedial') math classes, which gave me no credits, and cost me a spot on the dean's list when I ended with a 4.0 GPA.

So I'm going to take the math portion of the ACCUPLACER test again
tomorrow morning. I hope I pass it this time, so that I don't have to
take the 'developmental' math courses anymore.

So I could use good prayers, thoughts, and vibes sent my way in the morning.