Posted September 29, 2003.

Muncie Mercury Traced to Broken Bulb

Investigators from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency believe that small quantities of mercury found on a computer table at the John F. Kennedy branch of the Muncie (Ind.) Public Library came from a fluorescent light bulb that broke several weeks earlier. After the eight-foot bulb shattered, a custodian swept up the large pieces of glass and used a vacuum cleaner to clean up the rest.

EPA On-site Coordinator Bill Simes said that ever since, the vacuum cleaner “has been tossing little beads of mercury” in various places. “We’re just finding microdots of mercury scattered all through the library.”

The library closed to the public after the mercury was discovered September 18 and EPA officials were called in to supervise a cleanup. Shortly after the branch was to reopen September 22, a custodian discovered traces of mercury on another computer table and the agency returned for another look.

Library officials are keeping the branch closed for several weeks as the EPA conducts a full decontamination, the Muncie Star Press reported September 26. Agents are disposing of all the carpeting as hazardous waste, cleaning all the bookshelves and equipment, and testing the entire collection for mercury contamination.

Posted September 29, 2003.