mercury062007

100 quarantined after mercury spill at Moorhead

Students at Minnesota State University-Moorhead got an unexpected day off Tuesday when summer school classes were cancelled because of a mercury spill.

By Tim Harlow, Star Tribune

Last update: June 19, 2007 - 12:56 PM

Students at Minnesota State University-Moorhead got an unexpected day off Tuesday when summer school classes were cancelled because of a mercury spill.

No one was believed to be injured, but more than 70 students and faculty and staff members, along with 30 maintenance staff members, were quarantined on campus and spent most of the day waiting for emergency personnel to conduct air quality tests to determine if anybody was harmed.

The spill happened at 7 a.m. in room 368 of Bridges Hall about an hour before classes were to begin. A custodian who was moving a cart with liquid mercury on it noticed the spill, which consisted of three drops, each the size of a U.S. quarter, said Doug Hamilton, executive director of public relations for the university.

Students, faculty and staff members arriving for morning classes and work entered the building before it could be closed down.

Two adjoining halls - King Biology Hall and Flora Frick Hall - also were shut down because the buildings share a ventilation system, Hamilton said.

The campus' maintenance building also was shut down after workers who had been in Bridges Hall returned to that building, Hamilton said.

Bridges Hall is a mixed-use building which includes computer labs, a planetarium, the College of Arts and Humanities, and classrooms for philosophy and psychology courses. Frick Hall houses several departments offering student services and the mass communications department. King Hall is used for art and science classes.

A clean up crew from the Twin Cities was to arrive on the campus this afternoon. Those quarantined had to wait for health officials to evaluate them before the could go home.

"Basically they are trying to entertain themselves," Hamilton said. "We take it seriously and we followed procedures."

Hamilton said he hoped classes could resume as early as tonight or Wednesday.

Exposure to excessive levels of mercury can lead to permanent injury or fatally injure the kidneys or nervous system, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Tim Harlow • harlow@startribune.com