Mercury spills at store

By Dan Hilborn
Published July 22, 2006


Several employees at the Lordco auto parts outlet on Edmonds Street lost their shoes, and one employee had to give up his clothing, after a hazardous material incident last Friday afternoon.

A small amount of mercury was spilled, prompting a call to the hazardous material response team of the Burnaby Fire Department.

While the fire department was able to clean up the majority of the estimated two ounces of mercury without incident, a private hazardous materials response team was also called out to help with the job.

"In the grand scheme of things, this wasn't a large spill," said Chris Nicholson, supervisor of CEDA Reactor Ltd. in Coquitlam. "But it was a small amount spread over a large area."

While the store was evacuated, nobody was injured in the incident. Mercury is a heavy silver liquid that is most harmful if its vapours are inhaled either in large doses or over a long period of time.

A manager at Lordco who identified himself only as "Steve" said the mercury spilled out of a tool that was recently purchased from a nearby motorcycle dealership, and his employees were not forewarned about the presence of the toxic substance.

"If we had known, I don't think we would have even been transporting that tool," he said.

The employee's shoes and clothing were removed for clean-up and further testing to see if they had any contamination, and were expected to be returned to their rightful owners this week.