Monday, Jan. 12, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.
County and federal authorities investigating the mercury contamination of a Las Vegas home say they do not believe that the community is at risk, despite the fact that a 17-year-old boy at the home was hospitalized with mercury poisoning.
Investigators for the Environmental Protection Agency have sealed the home, keeping harmful mercury vapors from escaping, officials said.
An EPA emergency response team from San Francisco was at the house today to continue testing and decontaminating the family's dog, Snowball.
The EPA found high levels of mercury vapor in the house in the 1400 block of Saylor Way, near Jones Boulevard and Vegas Drive. The levels were as high as 75 times the level that requires EPA cleanup, agency spokesman Mark Merchant said.
But a Clark County Health District spokeswoman said today officials do not believe many people outside the family had contact with the mercury.
"We are looking at a few people," spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said.
While authorities do not believe the mercury was taken to the boy's school or other locations, they do not know what happened to the substance, which is used in mining and manufacturing.
It may have been thrown out in the trash, authorities say. A decision has not yet been made whether to scan the county landfill at Apex for mercury vapors.
Authorities say the teenage victim was being treated for acute mercury poisoning. He complained of numbness in his fingers, pain in his spinal area and a skin rash, officials said.
Liquid mercury can cause a rash if it comes in contact with the skin. However, it is more dangerous to the central nervous system if it vaporizes at room temperature in an enclosed area and is inhaled, Merchant said.
The 17-year-old was first checked into Valley Hospital Medical Center Saturday and then transferred to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, said Glenn Savage, Health District environmental health director. During an interview with a hospital nurse the teenager admitted that mercury was involved.
The hospital immediately contacted Savage and informed him that the toxic material was more than likely vaporizing in the teenager's home.
The teenager's grandmother, who is the teen's guardian and the only other occupant of the home, told doctors that her grandson had brought home a beaker of mercury in September and had been playing with the substance for fun. The grandmother found the mercury in November and forced her grandson to dispose of it, she said.
"You can't just dump mercury down the sink or throw it away," Savage said. "But they might have just thrown it in the trash. We're trying to figure that out right now and take action."
Although the mercury was disposed of in November, high traces of it were still likely to be vaporizing in the home, Savage said.
In the meantime, the grandmother, who did not complain of any symptoms, was removed from the home and the dog was shaved down.
"We are still decontaminating the dog," Merchant said.
Ann Bradley, a veterinarian at the Ark Animal Clinic, was on scene early today to advise EPA officials on proper care of the dog during the decontamination process.
Upon inspection the EPA found pools of mercury throughout the house and in the back yard, Merchant said. The EPA officials could see beads of mercury inside the house and around the swimming pool.
The real toxicity comes from the vapors the beads can release, Merchant said. When the room temperature increases, the beads can vaporize quite readily, he said.
Savage said with the recent cooler temperatures, the house's heater may have been responsible for a high amount of vaporization.
"With temperatures here being so low lately, they probably turned on their heater," he said. "With that heat, the mercury can vaporize quite easily and spread the vapor throughout the house."
Savage said this is very dangerous.
"It can be fatal; it's a very toxic material," he said. "In this situation we're dealing with a young man who had played with it, made dermal contact with it and said he might have even had it splash into his mouth. It's extremely dangerous."
Merchant said the EPA does not know where the teenager got the mercury.
"It's used in the mining industry and still has a lot to do with mining operations," he said. "It's not readily available, but it's available. How he got it, we don't know yet."
He said dealing with the situation will be a daunting task.
"We still need to talk to the boy and figure out some more details of where he got it and what he was doing with the mercury," he said. "Then we'll go into the house and figure out how much contamination is still there. Everything we find contaminated will need to be disposed of."
Savage agreed that decontaminating the home will take a lot of work.
"We'll have to go in with detection devices to find the hot areas, and by interviewing the boy, we will have a good idea of where those areas were that he played with it," he said. "We'll have to remove the carpeting."
Savage said the teenager will be treated with therapy and medications, which were brought in from out of state to stabilize his condition.
"I can tell you the EPA did monitor his clothing that he had on and had to dispose of those and some of the linens he was laying on at the hospital," he said.
Merchant said children often mistake mercury as a "Matrix-like toy."
"Kids see mercury and they think it's a toy," he said. "In it's liquid form it moves around like the Matrix or something and they think it's a toy. It's not a toy."
Merchant said he just got back from a mercury spill in Gardnerville in Northern Nevada in which a student brought four ounces of mercury to a middle school.
"A middle school kid brought in a bottle of mercury and thought it was something to play with and show his friends," he said. "It contaminated 56 students from just a couple hours of exposure. All of the kids had to be stripped down and put on hospital gowns."
If those kids were contaminated in a couple of hours, just think of the contamination the local teenager must have, Merchant added. The teenager and his grandmother will have a lot to deal with, he said.
Luckily for them, the community is willing to help out, Savage said.
"We called the Red Cross and they are providing shelter, clothing and food for the grandmother," he said. "Animal Control with the city came out to control the dog so the EPA could shave him down and decontaminate him. It was great how everyone immediately stepped up and helped this family out."
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