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From Local News
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Child says he played with mercury
Thursday, March 15, 2012
"It was just in the middle of my hand," says Putnam Middle 6th Grader William Baker. He talking about playing with mercury with his bare hands. He was in this classroom last week after an estimated one-cup of mercury, weighing three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half pounds, spilled on the floor last Friday. "It was just kind of like rolling and going through my fingers and everything."
His mom, Sherri, was shocked to hear that he had come in contact with the mercury.
"I can't fault him for not knowing what it was, but it's a very unfortunate situation that he didn't know what it was, and he was playing with it. I just hope that he doesn't have any problems later on."
She took her son to the emergency room on Monday, and then brought his clothes to be tested on Wednesday.
"They said they are going to send someone to the house so hopefully there's no bad levels, and they'll let us know the proper precautions we need to take."
The Environmental Protection Agency is hoping more parents will bring their children's clothes to have them tested to see just how far this contamination has spread. Gary Andrew is the on-site coordinator.
"It's very important that we have the opportunity to screen them to make sure that they are acceptable to be worn around and to gives us a chance to see if mercury has been transported back to the home so we can help them out."
They have not detected mercury in any homes so far, but the meters have found little beads of mercury all throughout the school.
"It moved from the classroom to halls to other rooms in the school to janitorial closets and things like that," he says.
The school will be closed for the rest of the week. Classes will resume after Spring Break on March 26th. If clean up continues then, school will be held at an alternate location.
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Keywords: Mercury, classroom, Putman middle school,
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