Tristan,
You must have missed my earlier post. I did check with Mercotac engineering, earlier this year. Their response was that mercury spills were a reality when the maximum current or the mechanical specifications (specifically misalignment of the two rotating bodies and excessive vibration) are exceeded. There is a difference between "mercury wetted contacts" and using mercury as a contact. These fit into the latter category. For more info please refer to their literature...
http://www.mercotac.com/html/literature.html
All of these documents discuss the need to correctly dispose (must be recycled) of these contacts due to the mercury they contain. In almost every paragraph of the two application sheets, connector failure is mentioned as a danger.
In the case of a mercury spills on an FRC field does the amount or cleanup procedure really matter? Any is too much!