Twelve students and five faculty members are checked for mercury contamination after two thermometers break at Schwettman Education Center.
By CAMILLE C. SPENCER
Published August 23, 2006
NEW PORT RICHEY - A group of 17 students and faculty members were examined for mercury contamination Tuesday after a teacher accidentally dropped two 12-inch thermometers during a science class at Harry Schwettman Education Center.
The incident occurred about 9:30 a.m. as the students were testing water temperature to cook hot dogs, said Steve Luikart, assistant principal at River Ridge High School, who helped supervise the response.
"The teacher reached for a thermometer and it slipped (from her hands), so she reached for another and both thermometers fell," said Tammy Rabon, Pasco school district spokeswoman.
Some of the students were exposed to the mercury in the classroom. As they left, they tracked some of the mercury into the hallway, where others may have come into contact with it, said Jim Johnston, emergency management operations coordinator for Pasco County.
All told, 12 students and five faculty members were tested for exposure.
The mercury, about one gram in each thermometer, was cleaned up by a school custodian, who swept the mercury into a bag, Luikart said. Authorities couldn't say whether the custodian was tested for contamination.
Though the amount of mercury was small, school officials evacuated the school for about five hours as a precaution, and separated those affected from those who weren't.
Those who may have come in contact with the mercury stood in a field behind the school at 5520 Grand Blvd., beneath the shade of a tree. Their clothes were checked by hazmat officials and cleaned.
"The bulk of their clothing registered nothing," Johnston said.
The rest of the students in the school, about 40, were taken to portable classrooms for the remainder of the day, as a cleanup contractor evaluated the contamination.
A heavy metal exposure test was administered at Community Hospital to seven of the 17 people who come in contact with the mercury, Johnston said.
The test involves taking a urine sample to determine mercury levels in a person's system. Results are available after 24 hours.
Experts say the amount of mercury in a person's system should not exceed 10 micrograms per liter of urine.
Schwettman school officials, who stood among fire rescue and hazmat crews Tuesday morning, said school will be open today.
Mercury, a toxic liquid metal, is often used in thermometers or fluorescent lights. Mercury poisoning occurs when its vapors are inhaled. Mercury isn't usually harmful to the skin if exposure is brief. Even so, brief contact with high levels of mercury can cause fatigue or loss of appetite.
The incident marks the second time in a week that mercury has been spilled at a Florida school.
On Aug. 16, about 75 students and faculty at Sarasota's Cardinal Mooney High School were checked for exposure to mercury after the substance leaked from a vial in a student's backpack. Twenty had some level of mercury on their clothing. No one showed signs of illness.
