Who has not seen W. Eugene Smith's photos of Minamata?
Anyone who is using mercury thermometers should probably have a spill-kit and a plan in case of breakage.
My Thermoworks Thermopop digital thermometer is acurate ±1.0°F (±0.5°C) between 14 to 208°F (–10 to 98°C), and gives a reading within 2-3 seconds. The Thermopop can be irritating to use because, by default, the display times out after 10 minutes to save batteries. That can be disabled so it stays on until you turn it off. You can change the reading to display either Celcius or Fahrenheit, but it is not very quick or convenient to switch back and forth.
If you ever have a problem with a Thermoworks thermometer, customer service is very good.
I also use a Samigon analog dial thermometer which costs about $20USD. It claims to be accurate ± 1 degree, but does not say if that is Celcius or Fahrenheit. I can adjust the dial to match my digital thermometer at 20*C, but that is a one-point calibration, so it may not be accurate elsewhere on the dial. The dial thermometer never shuts down, needs no batteries, and reads in both F and C without pushing any buttons!
One other difference, I have discovered the dial thermometer needs to have several inches of the stem immersed to get an accurate reading, while my digital thermometer will give a good reading with only about 1/2-inch of the stem tip submerged.