10 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, November 13, 1996 ih Fears (continued from page 1) relationship to the dangers of mer- cury vapor. Mercury is not radio- active. Investigators, though, are tak- ing no chances. Anyone who en- - ters the building must change into a full body suit with breath- ing apparatus, then be scanned when leaving. When traces of mercury were found on a couch, it was removed from the building. “It's very unlikely that it's still a danger,” said Daniel Pindzola, PhD, an air quality engineering expert who also teaches at Wilkes. He said small spills occur fre- quently in laboratory settings, and are simply picked up and returned to their containers or disposed of. Pindzola said the vast majority of a spill, “99.9% of it," would probably be picked up by vacu- uming, but “When you have chil- dren, zero is what they want.” “That's not much,” Pindzola said of the estimated two-pound spill. “It’s not worth a big story.” But he said the Environmental Protection Agency has a protocol that must be followed no matter what the circumstances of an in- dividual incident are. A freshman student has con- fessed to removing the mercury from a locked cabinet in Ryback'’s science classroom on at least one and perhaps more occasions. The container of mercury was known to be missing Thursday, Oct. 31. Building and grounds personnel were called Nov. 1 to pick up what Wycallis described as an “eraser head” size amount of the sub- stance. It was vacuumed and mopped up, which is what Wycallis said the Poison Control Center recommended. Joy Morgan, a senior at the school, said she remembered us- ing mercury in freshman science while learning to calculate the density of different materials. Galicki and assistant high school principal Gil Griffiths be- gan an investigation to find out what had happened to the con- tainer, and were still looking into the matter when someone noticed mercury in the typing room Tues- day afternoon, Nov. 5. Wycallis contacted DEP at that point and cleanup crews began work that night. Kevin Augustine, a DEP assis- tant emergency response coordi- nator, said Nov. 6 that he was told about 10 Ibs. of mercury was un- accounted for. That figure was based on Ryback'’s estimate that the container could hold 101bs. of the extremely heavy substance. The container was found later that day with about three pounds of mercurystill in it. When Ryback showed DEP personnel the level he thought the mercury had reached, they estimated the con- tainer had held about five pounds of the element, and two pounds had been removed, Wycallis said. Five specialists from Datom Products Inc., a hazardous mate- rials removal company from Dunmore, spent all Tuesday night cleaning up beads of mercury from the affected area, using flashlights to locate the highly-reflective ma- terial, then picking it up with vacuum cleaners. DEP then took over, primarily by using monitors sensitive to mercury vapors. Wycallis said the meters DEP first used gave direct readings of the concentration of vapors, but additional machines only took readings that had to be sent to New Jersey to be interpreted. Re- sults will have to be interpreted by DEP and the state Department of Health before any information isreleased or the school is deemed safe for occupancy. Editor's Note: J. Michael Case of Wilkes University provided re- search materials for use as back- ground information for this article. Want to know more about mercury? Log on to the Ecologia home page on the Internet. It pro- vides links to other pages with information about substances that may be harmful to health or the environment. One is the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Ecologia is "at. hittp:// ecologia.nier.org Send The Post to a friend It makes a great gift Call 675-5211 for details Meeting (continued from page 1) “He left the school open for five days and it was unnecessary. We want to hear how Wycallis is going to weasel his way out of this,” said Donna Sutton of Shavertown who started a petition that called for the Superintendent's resignation. “We don't want to find out down the road that he foolishly exposed our children for days,” said one Trucksville mother. The board maintains that the school was aware that some mer- cury had been stolen on Oct. 28. A small portion was then discov- ered on Nov. 1, and more on the 5th, which is what prompted the school to call in DATOM to clean up the mercury. “From the information we had, we acted appropriately,” said Wyecallis. Other parents were concerned about how the students would have to make up the days. “It depends on the amount of days the school will be out, but we are looking at the day after Thanks- giving, Deer hunting day, Satur- days, and snow days to help make up the time,” said Wycallis. The experts answered as many questions as they could. Leonard Insalaco from the DEP was the first expert to take the stage. He explained the DEP's role. “We were notified on Nov. 5. At that time we realized the contamina- tion was greater than we thought,” Insalaco said. “So we made ar- rangements to pick up five vapor meters from Harrisburg. By Wednesday we had the meters operating throughout the school.” Insalaco also said they tested school buses and seven homes off campus. He explained the amount OF Wi 9 “Don't Get Gobbled Up By her Dealers Hig Prices!” of mercury was less than the 10 pound estimate that had origi- nally been reported. Specific ques- tions on the amount of mercury vapor found in the air could not be answered. The hard figures will come out later this week after they are analyzed by DEP and the Department of Health. As Insalaco was answering questions about mercury, more" and more people started to ask questions of the board. Many wanted to know more about the five days after the mercury was discovered missing. They wanted to know where the “hot spots” of the school were and if they should take their child to the doctor. One upset mother addressed Principal Galicki about her three- year-old daughter's symptoms and the school's handling of the spill. “You should be ashamed of yourselves for trying to save your reputations. My three year old has every symptom of this. For four days you left babies in that school. The day after Halloween she came home with burns on her mouth,” said the enraged mother. “It was a small amount of mer- cury that was recovered. I would never do anything to damage a child,” said Galicki. ~ Many people wanted answers about what they should do con- . ° . DANS & Y CAF 4 ‘88 CADILLAC Fr Ean f i] = nt 192 TIA Sp Li Giiee a0 nul . 14 a pol TIAG| 4 BUICK GR al Lig S ied SDN, a Li TAURUS 2 Green Poauly 7 Full Power. Dual A 0 00 ACY 96 DODGE hu BT Gl oN. '93 CADDY SE Sum is Whee ADILLAC '95 CADILLAC | SEIN DeVHLLE Try Factory #17,900 $22,995 {HIPAA J '91 DODGE 90 PONTIAC OO OVAGER CARAVAN TRANSPORT SE 7 Passenger, Air, 7 Pas Je. fun, White Beauty, Full Stereo e200 $5995 | *699 JODGE 1'95 CHEVROLET} 95 FORD D CARA AN | ASTRO CARGO VAN WINDSTAR WGN. Auto., Air, P. ily Power, Take 6 Cyl. Power, Local Trade S 8. Full Pow. Cannot The ramily& Go Jwindows, Locks, Tilt, Cruise Roti From A New Ons 4 CH LUMINA Ls Sy W. ALL WHEEL DRIVE |G: bs: CARGO | VAN V-6, 7 Passenger, eels 15 ht Bo Tower ve Auto, A/C, Side & ear Door Glass $13,995 [$13,995 13,995 . CREDIT ] PRUBLES. CLEVER { CAN HELP! we. 5099 Call: 1- cerning their children. “If you have reason to believe that your child was exposed and is having some of the symptoms, I would take them to a doctor. But, I don’t think that it's necessary for any sort of mass screening. It wouldn't be productive. At this point we're looking at a small amount of people,” said Joel Hersh of the Health Dept. When asked how dangerous the exposure was and who was affected most, Hirsh said he couldn't answer that exactly. “It's hard to recreate history. That's what we're attempting to do. We work from the investigation and people believed to be involved and work our way out. We have about 20 kids that we know have been exposed. We need all the informa- tion we can get. Maybe someone is not telling us everything and there are more than 20,” said Hirsh. One parent commented that she appreciates all of the experts for doing a fine job protecting the students, but she wanted to hear from the board. After much ap- plause and many comments yelled out throughout the meeting, the experts handed the podium to the people. Ted Krohn addressed the board. “What was the mercury doing in the school in the first place? There is nothing in the curriculum that says it's necessary. All of the dates are extremely different. Someone knew about this on the 28th and it wasn't make known until the 5th. It was cover up! No one wanted their record to be blemished,” said Krohn. “I am calling for the resignations of those involved,” he proclaimed. As theroar of applause stopped Ben Jones, attorney for the board, told Krohn he would meet with him discuss and establish the chronology of the events. The meeting took an even more intense turn when Clarence Michael tried to address Jones. After the two men exchanged heated words, Jones read a legal statement forbidding Michael fo speak to him publically or pri- vately. The meeting was then adjourned to the catcalls of many who did not get a chance to speak. The school will open after more tests to see if the contamination is completely gone. Test results are expected Wednesday at the earli- est. Civil War group to meet November 20 The Wyoming Valley Civil War Round Table will meet Wed., Nov. 20 _at 7 p.m. in the Dallas Senior High Library. The speaker will be Mr. Lawrence Keener-Farley, a student of the Civil War for over 35 years: Keener-Farley graduated from York College, Shippensburg Univ., Temple Univ., and Widener Univ. He is an attorney at law. He is a member of numerous Civil War organizations and frequent contributor to the Civil War News. His topics will be “The Colors of the Blue and Gray - Flags of the North and the South.” Anyone interested in the Civil War is most welcome to attend. 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Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers