If you touch the chalk by accident, keep your hands away from your face, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, and make sure you tell your mom or dad. Some necklaces that kids have worn to school in the last few years contain a poisonous metal called mercury. The necklaces were bought in Mexico. They are often a beaded chain, cord, or leather strand with a glass pendant that contains mercury. The mercury appears as a silvery clump of liquid that rolls around in the hollow glass pendant.
Pendants can be in various shapes, such as hearts, bottles, saber teeth and chili peppers.
If your necklace breaks, leave the room, close the door, and get an adult right away. Mercury vapors are very harmful. Mercury is also found inside glass thermometers. Pediatricians are now urging parents to get rid of mercury thermometers in their homes. Thermometers should never be put into the trash.