Hi Daniel – I applaud your effort to stay mercury safe. I bought a Jerome mercury vapor analyzer a while back on e-bay and using it has been quite an education. My experience has been that any item that comes into contact with mercury has a strong potential to continue to give off mercury vapor. This can take place even when there is no visible mercury contamination on the article. The vapor levels frequently exceed safe limits. The only containers that seem to consistently seal in the vapor are glass bottles with a tight sealing PTFE lined cap. I have found that many kinds of plastic bottles allow vapor leakage. The other thing that helps a lot is storing a small glass jar within a larger glass jar. The main outcome of my testing is that I no longer store any mercury in occupied areas – it is kept in protected outdoor locations – this includes my mercury pot which is vapor tight when closed. I believe it is possible to be safe around mercury by exercising prudent storage methods, but encourage people to err on the cautious side as the vapors are invisible if a measuring device is not available. If you can get a meter at an affordable price, do so. If not set containers of mercury indicating powder in your mercury storage and working areas and monitor them. The powder is inexpensive and fairly sensitive in my experience. It is useful to keep a small sample in a sealed jar near the open powder container so you can make an accurate color comparison easily.