Reprinted article from the East Central Indiana Star Press

Reprinted article from the East Central Indiana Star Press (October, 01 2003)

Broken Bulb Blamed for Mercury Release

MUNCIE - Federal investigators believe they have found the cause of a mercury release that has closed the Muncie Public Library's busiest library: a broken light bulb.

"What we're thinking is, it's one light bulb, one 8-foot fluorescent light bulb," said Bill Simes, on-scene coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The agency plans to spend about $70,000 to clean up the contamination at Kennedy Library, which has seen more that 250,000 visitors this year.

"When you come in the front door, right to the left of there is a stand," Simes said. "Above there we found on the shelves little pieces of glass from that [broken] light and a bead of mercury that was behind the bookshelf."

The light bulb apparently was broken several weeks ago. A janitor swept up what broken glass he could, then used a vacuum cleaner to pick up the rest of the pieces.

"What's been going on ever since is, [the vacuum cleaner] has been tossing little beads of mercury over here to over there, and then from over there to over here," Simes said. "We're just finding microdots of mercury scattered all through the library. Calling them a spec is calling them big."

The vacuum cleaner tested positive for mercury contamination.

The library has been closed since microdots of mercury first were noticed there on computer laboratory keyboards on Sept 18. After an EPA-supervised cleanup, the library was scheduled to re-open Monday, but that didn't happen because more mercury was discovered on another computer terminal.

"We talked to Sylvania, people who make the light bulbs, and they say they have cut down the mercury in their light bulbs to about a fourth of what they had, but some of these bulbs [in the library] may be [older] bulbs that were higher in mercury," Simes said.

It will now take several weeks for the library to re-open.

All of the carpet is being removed and disposed of as a hazardous waste.

All bookshelves, furniture and equipment are being removed and decontaminated.

And all of the books and movies are being removed to the parking lot, sealed in clear garbage bags, "baked" in the sun, and tested for contamination. Baking the material causes any traces of mercury present to vaporize. In its gaseous state, investigators can detect it with a "sniffer".

"Out of probably 2000 bags of books and other materials we've taken out so far, we've found four bags that were hot, contaminated, " Simes said. "So we are finding one [contaminated bag] in about every 400 to 500."

The bags are being loaded onto semi-trailers for storage until the library is recarpeted and the shelves are removed and cleaned.