Story Created:
Aug 19, 2009 at 12:20 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Aug 19, 2009 at 5:57 PM CDT
(AP) -- State and federal environmental officials remain in Forsyth on Wednesday, a day after a mercury spill closed the district in that Taney County community.
Classes at Forsyth canceled Wednesday while nearly a dozen classrooms are cleaned with oversight from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
On Tuesday, a container filled with mercury brought to school by a teacher was knocked over. Mercury spilled over a notebook and onto the floor, and the teacher couldn't clean the spill. Air samples show mercury was tracked throughout the school as students
entered and left the classroom.
Mercury is toxic and high-level exposure can damage the brain, heart, kidneys and lungs. But health officials say it's unlikely anyone in the school was harmed because they were exposed to vapors for just one day.
The teacher is on administrative leave indefinitely. He brought the mercury to school in a water bottle.
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