The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reopened a chemistry building Aug. 31 after closing it for several days after a hazardous material incident involving a graduate student.
On the evening of Aug. 26, emergency responders for the city of Cambridge arrived at Building 18, which houses MIT’s Department of Chemistry, after a report of possible exposure to dimethylmercury.
Dimethylmercury is a highly neurotoxic compound that can be absorbed through the skin.
On Aug 17, MIT announced on its management website that it had closed the building and that cleanup efforts by hazardous waste management company Triumvirate Environmental were underway.
MIT later said the graduate student had gone to a local emergency room and reported having synthesized dimethylmercury. The compound was historically used as a methylating agent in organic synthesis and as a reference standard in mercury-199 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Its extreme toxicity has led chemists to replace it with safer reagents and reference compounds for most applications.
A sample of dimethylmercury, an extremely toxic compound that can be absorbed through the skin Credit:
Ulyanov White/Wikimedia Commons
The compound was not authorized as part of the student’s research program, according to the university.
As part of its response, MIT also offered baseline testing to people who had been near the student and their work environment on the day of the incident. Officials from MIT Health said they believed the risk of secondary or tertiary exposure was very low and did not recommend testing for community members who had not entered the student’s laboratory that day.
By Aug. 29, MIT said new information had called into question whether the student had actually synthesized dimethylmercury. In addition, MIT said that an initial blood test of the student showed no sign of mercury exposure, although the student remained under medical supervision at the time of the update.
On Sunday night, the university announced that decontamination of the laboratory and the student’s residential suite had been completed. After consulting industrial hygienists, MIT Health medical experts, and outside experts, MIT said Building 18 was safe to reopen at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 31.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Ana Georgescu covers a wide range of topics in Physical Sciences. She is also a frequent contributor to the Business desk and is probably working on a short video project at any given time.
