Woman Finds Mercury in Pepper Shaker / teenager is now charged with two felonies

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http://enews.earthlink.net/article/str?

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Wis. Woman Finds Mercury in Pepper Shaker

January 06, 2006 8:51 PM EST

WAUSAU, Wis. - A woman shaking pepper onto her potato at a fast food

restaurant had a startling discovery - metallic mercury came out -

and a teenager is now charged with two felonies in the apparent

prank, according to court records.

The discovery of mercury, which can cause health problems, in the

food late last month prompted responses from firefighters and the

county's hazardous materials team, authorities said.

No one was harmed in the Dec. 30 incident at a 's in Weston in

which liquid mercury spilled through the holes in the shaker. When

the little balls it formed were rolled together, it amounted to

about the size of pea, said Marathon County Emergency Planner Jerome

Boettcher. No one ingested the substance.

Zachariah Barrett, 17, of Wausau is charged with two felonies -

second-degree reckless endangerment and placing a foreign object in

edibles, according to court documents. His preliminary hearing was

scheduled Tuesday.

Exposure to high levels of mercury can damage the brain, kidneys and

a developing fetus. But, Willems Van Dijk, the county's health

officer, said someone who ingests mercury in its metallic form is at

minimal risk for health problems because it slides through the body

and is not absorbed.

Investigators do not know where the teen got the mercury, Boettcher

said.

" It could have come from a lot of sources, like a thermometer or

from some switches for heating that use it, " he said.