Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
(KSL News) Highland High School will hold classes this morning. The school was shut down after about a cup of mercury was found in the toilet of a faculty bathroom.
The Salt Lake Valley Health Department spent much of the night testing mercury levels in the school. They wanted to make sure vapors in the air wouldn't make students or faculty sick.
Dr. Dagmar Vitek/ Salt Lake Valley Health Dept.: "Mercury can cause some health effects which are mostly neurological, like irritability, people cannot sleep and they cannot memorize things. They have headaches. It can cause muscle weakness."
This morning the mercury is still in the faculty bathroom. Crews will remove it later today. For now, the bathroom is quarantined and health officials say it poses no health risk.
Investigators still don't know how long the mercury has been there or where it came from.
