Officials probe mercury spill near Beltway
Up to 60 people decontaminated as police investigate whether exposure was criminal
Houston police are investigating the origins of a small amount of mercury found Sunday near three businesses off the West Sam Houston
Tollway, where firefighters decontaminated up to 60 people as a precaution, officials said.
Exposure to mercury, a heavy silvery metal that maintains a liquid form at normal temperatures, can be dangerous when ingested or inhaled. Officials with the Houston
Health Department, however, said that the mercury found Sunday posed an “extremely low” risk to the public, because trace amounts were found on the ground outside.
A pregnant woman was the only person hospitalized during the cleanup, according to Houston Fire Chief Sam Peña. He added there was no risk to anyone outside the contaminated area.
“Anybody who was processed through the decontamination corridor did so as a precaution,” Peña said. “If they had it on their shoes or the lower part of their pants, we did that as a precaution before we led people out of the zones where we discovered the material.”
An unidentified “concerned citizen” who works in the chemical industry reported a white silvery substance on the ground at 11:15 a.m. in
the 10700 block of Westview near the parkway. Firefighters responded and found the chemical outside the nearby Walmart, Sonic Drive-In and a Shell gas station.
It’s unclear how long the mercury had been on the ground or how it got there, said Matt Slinkard, executive assistant chief of the Houston Police Department. He said the police investigation will focus on whether the exposure was intentional or accidental. Slinkard said investigators are following up on two potential leads: a burglary at a business or warehouse near the exposure site, and a man at a county hospital who on Saturday night or Sunday morning reported mercury exposure. If the exposure does prove to be intentional, the FBI will head up the criminal investigation, Slinkard said.
“Rest assured, we’re taking this very seriously,” he said, adding: “We’re going to be very careful and sensitive about the information we have tonight or any potential leads. We’re not going to give detailed information because we don’t want to jeopardize the potential investigation if it does turn out to be a criminal act.”
The discovery of the chemical prompted a massive response from Houston firefighters and police. At least four engines and about 30 police officers were on the scene. Firefighters put 30 to 60 people into a precautionary decontamination protocol, which involved rinsing them off and asking them to remove shoes and clothing. The people were given temporary clothing before they left the area.
Patti and Rocky Geryk had been eating at Sonic when officials closed down the establishment and warned them about the mercury.
The Geryks said that they did not see anything outside but that investigators asked them to take decontamination showers. They suited up and began marching home with their possessions in plastic hazmat bags, abandoning their car outside the restaurant.
“Our levels are at 0,” Patti Geryk said as the family walked down Westview Drive back to their home.
A private contractor was still cleaning the area Sunday night, and fire officials did not offer a timeline for when the work would be complete. That part of Westview will remain closed until then, Peña said.
Dr. David Persse, the health authority for the Houston Health Department, said chronic exposure to mercury may cause severe neurological side effects. A small amount of mercury exposure can lead to acute symptoms, such as a stuffy nose, a scratchy throat and headaches.
People who feel like they were exposed to the chemical can leave their clothing outside and wait for the substance to evaporate, he said.
Mercury exposure can be incredibly dangerous, but there’s less risk in an outdoor setting if it’s elemental mercury that’s on the ground in liquid form, opposed to heated mercury vapor in an enclosed setting or consuming unsafe quantities of organic mercury in fish, said Dr. Robert Goodnough, toxicologist and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine.
“Elemental mercury — as long as it’s not being heated — is not the most dangerous form of mercury,” Goodnough said. “But it’s good that there was an abundance of caution.”
Conversely, if airborne in vapor form, the mercury could be absorbed very quickly in a more enclosed environment with a fairly rapid onset of neurological symptoms, he said.
Hazardous-material responders can check for any airborne exposures and potential symptoms as part of any decontamination process, he said.
In addition to potential death, severe mercury poisoning can cause mad hatter disease or, in the most infamous case, what is known as Minamata disease after the release decades ago of large quantities of mercury in industrial wastewater from a chemical plant in the Japanese city of Minamata. The mercury got into the local fisheries and caused severe neurological problems in people for years after consuming the fish and shellfish.
While mercury is no longer used as much in the United States for things such as thermometers and dental fillings, mercury is still commonly used in fluorescent lighting, certain metal amalgams, chemical manufacturing, electronics and as a preservative in some vaccines, among other uses.
“It’s still used in a lot of different industries and in a lot of different ways,” Goodnough said. “But industrial exposures are typically limited to on-site incidents.”