04/05/05 -- Mercury spills caused the District of Columbia school district to shut down Cardozo High School for nearly three weeks and spend at least $1 million in clean-up costs.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which helped the district remove the mercury, has responded to mercury spills in schools in Arizona, Kentucky, Michigan, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Nevada in recent years. In 2004, the EPA responded to 12 emergency removals, says spokesperson Dale Kemery.
The EPA reports that at least nine states -- Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin -- have created programs to speed up the removal of mercury from schools by cleaning science laboratories and educating teachers.
Mercury at Cardozo High School was first found Feb. 23, and additional mercury was discovered on three more occasions since then. Police charged three students with taking mercury from a science lab and contaminating the school.
Cardozo’s 830 students missed four days of school, and their classes were transferred to the University of the District of Columbia during the remainder of the clean-up.
On March 7, there was a mercury spill at another Washington, D.C., public school. This time, students at Hardy Middle School accidentally broke a thermometer.
Following the recent spills, Superintendent Clifford B. Janey directed the principals at all of the district’s 147 schools to remove more than 200 potentially dangerous chemicals, including mercury.
Another incident in Washington, D.C., in which mercury was found at Ballou Senior High School in October 2003, cost the district $1.5 million and closed the building for more than a month.
D.C. school officials had banned all mercury from public schools following the 2003 incident, but EPA officials found six containers of hazardous material, including mercury, in three science labs at Cardozo, as well as nine mercury thermometers and several mercury thermostats.
Metallic mercury -- the kind used in thermometers -- is a shiny, silver-white, odorless liquid. When heated, it becomes a colorless, odorless gas. Just a few drops can be hazardous.
According to the Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, exposure to high levels of metallic, inorganic, or organic mercury can cause permanent damage to the brain, kidneys, and developing fetus. Short-term exposure can led to lung damage, vomiting, diarrhea, skin rashes, eye irritation, and increases in blood pressure and heart rate.