A 19-year-old man has been arrested in connection with mercury spills at three Houston businesses after he tried to sell 11 pounds of the toxic metal that he allegedly stole from an abandoned chemical lab, according to reports.
Dozens of people had to be hosed down and a pregnant woman was hospitalized as a precaution because of the spills.
Christopher Lee Melder was accused of breaking into GeoChem Labs on Friday and stealing 11 pounds of mercury, officials said in court Monday, according to click2Houston.
He sold small amounts of mercury for $20 to unidentified people at a Walmart and Shell gas station less than a mile from the abandoned building, officials said.
“The defendant played with the mercury in his hands during his sales,” a court official said, “and allowed the mercury to spill to the pavement, but made no attempt to clean up the hazardous material.”
Melder was charged with burglary and unlawful disposal of hazardous material, officials said. He also was charged on an outstanding felony drug possession warrant.
He sought treatment early Saturday in a hospital emergency room, where about 5 ounces of mercury fell out of his pocket and backpack, causing it to spill on the floor, while he was assessed by a nurse, according to the news outlet.
The emergency room was immediately shut down while a hazmat team decontaminated the premises.
Melder was not immediately charged because police said they were unable to identify sufficient probable cause.
On Sunday, less than a pint of mercury was found spilled in the parking lots outside a Walmart, a Sonic Drive-In and a Shell gas station, which are located near each other.
Additional testing detected mercury inside the Walmart, including at a McDonald’s inside the store, the Houston Health Department said late Monday, adding that possible contamination was being investigated at a nearby convenience store called Bucky’s.
It was unclear whether the mercury detected inside the Walmart was from an additional spill or from being tracked there by people’s shoes, Health Department spokesman Porfirio Villarreal said.
About 60 people were found to have trace amounts of mercury contamination in their lower extremities and were decontaminated at the scene as a precaution.
Health officials said they were decontaminated even though the level of chemical detected was below what’s dangerous to the average person.
Houston’s Office of Emergency Management spokesman Cory Stottlemyer said the people removed their clothes and shoes, and took a shower on site before being given other clothing.
One woman was taken to a hospital as a precaution because she was pregnant, and 12 were evaluated at the scene and released.
Mercury, a silvery liquid that occurs naturally in the Earth’s crust, is used in such things as thermometers, batteries and fluorescent light bulbs.
It’s a potent neurotoxin, but health effects depend on how much mercury a person is exposed to, how long they’re exposed and their age. Small children are most vulnerable.
Short-term exposure to mercury vapors can cause lung damage, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, increased blood pressure and heart rate, skin rashes and eye irritation.
Exposure to high levels can permanently damage the brain, kidneys and developing fetuses.
With Post wires