MERCURY SPILL AT MIDVIEW

FAMILY HOME UNINHABITABLE

A Carlisle Township family has been told to vacate their home Wednesday afternoon by the Lorain County General Health District after “extremely high levels” of mercury were found in the home.

The story begins at Midview High School where a student brought a container with a small amount of mercury to school this morning. Portions of the mercury spilled out onto the floor in a classroom. The school immediately contacted the authorities.

Tom Kelley, Director of Lorain County Emergency Management Agency and Homeland Security, said his office received the call around 10 a.m. from the school. “Midview contacted our office saying that a student had brought a small amount of mercury to the school and that they wanted it disposed of, so I went out and met with Eaton Township Fire Department at the school. After looking at it and talking to the student we determined that there might have been a spill in a classroom.”

Kelley said that a mercury vapor monitor was used and showed a positive reading in the classroom that the student was in. “Once we saw the positive reading we notified the Ohio EPA and the Lorain County Health Department. They both arrived on the scene and did some screenings of the room and we saw visible mercury on the floor in the room. We also discovered that students who were in the classroom one period after had some contamination on their shoes.”
Officials went to the student’s home on Butternut Ridge Road in Carlisle, along with Carlisle Township Fire Chief Russ Gardner to inspect the home. Kelley said that the monitor, being used by Ohio EPA Emergency Response Coordinator Reginald Brown, almost instantly showed an “extremely high level of mercury”. Kelley said that the house was determined to be uninhabitable for the family. “The Health Department will be working with the family along with the Red Cross to find them shelter and clothing and we are working through the process of getting this house cleaned up.”
Kelley said that the levels were so high that they decided to wait until morning when they will have better protective equipment to go through the entire home.

TMC NEWS asked Kelley for a brief run down on mercury and the hazards it contains. “Mercury at household temperatures, like 70 degrees, vaporizes and those vapors have been determined to cause damage to the central nervous system, especially in younger children. With that the Federal Government has set the threshold for what is acceptable levels very low and when those are exceeded the process we are going through today begin.”

Right now Kelley says that the Ohio EPA is in charge of the clean up in the home while the Lorain County General Health District is in charge of family welfare and health. The Emergency Management Agency and the Carlisle Township Fire Department will be available to assist throughout the process in anyway they can Kelley said.

Midview Schools have already brought in a private company to clean up the classroom and any other affected areas. No students were harmed or had to be evacuated from the school.

NOTE: The student told authorities that he obtained the mercury from his Butternut Ridge Road home. It is still unknown why he brought it to the school or why the mercury was in the home. Kelley tells us that although it is not illegal for people to have mercury in their home he encourages people to properly dispose of any mercury they may have, no matter how small of amount it might be.