Table 1.
Sources of mercury for spills investigated by the IDPH, West Chicago regional office.
| School
|
Medical facility
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homea | Source | Potentially affected homesb | Source | Potentially affected homesc | |
| Number | 25 | 3 | 11 | 2 | 5 |
| Container | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Thermometer, thermostat switch | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Barometer | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Switch | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Manometer | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pressure regulator | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Medical devicesd | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Unknown | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vacuumed | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Children caused | 1 | 1 | 11 | 1 | ? |
| > 1 to 10 μg/m3 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| ≥ 10 μg/m3 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
?
uncertain; shoes of both mother and child contaminated, so both may have contributed to contamination.
a
Homes with indoor spills; does not include homes potentially affected by spills in schools (via children), medical clinics (via patients), or outdoors (24 apartments tested near outdoor spill of unknown cause; no apartments contaminated).
b
Homes of children who played with Hg0 in one school.
c
Homes of patients of one medical clinic who had contaminated shoes; the pediatrician instructed a nurse to clean up the mercury with a DustBuster, and then he continued seeing patients.
d
Includes sphygmomanometers (two) and dilators (one).