Illinois Mercury Incident

In one school that the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) investigated, a 6th grade student found a jar with about 4 pounds of mercury in an unlocked cabinet. He threw beads of mercury in two hallways and gave mercury to friends. The children all thought that they were having harmless fun. The school was unaware that the mercury was present. The mercury had likely been in the school since before 1973, when it was a high school. The cleanup costs for the school district approached $200,000. Besides the school, IDPH sampled for airborne mercury in more than 12 homes of children who played with the mercury. Fortunately, only one home had enough mercury to require a cleanup.

Information provided by

Thomas A. Baughman, Ph.D.
Environmental Toxicologist
West Chicago Regional Office
Illinois Department of Public Health
245 W. Roosevelt Rd., Bldg. 5
West Chicago, IL 60185
USA
630-293-6800
630-293-6908 (FAX)
tbaughma@idph.state.il.us