‘Mercury building’ still unsafe for tenants’ return

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Yet another /mercury bedtime story....

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_144/mercurybuildingstill.html

Volume 75, Number 37 | February 1 - 7, 200

Villager photo by Jefferson Siegel

Carol on Jan. 21 with her older brother, Mark, who traveled from

California to help his sister through the ordeal with her contaminated

apartment.

‘Mercury building’ still unsafe for tenants’ return

By Jefferson Siegel

Nearly three weeks after mercury was found dripping into an apartment at 55 W.

Eighth St., the building remains empty and officials are still unsure of the

toxic substance’s origin.

Residents of the nine apartments have moved into hotel rooms or are staying

with friends and relatives. Two sets of medical tests have been performed on

tenants. High levels of toxic mercury fumes continue to permeate the building,

leaving officials unable to guess when anyone can return to their homes.

Two rooms of the second-floor apartment where the 15 ounces of mercury was

first discovered have been emptied and their contents removed for incineration.

The ceilings, walls and floors of the apartment have been removed. A private

cleaning contractor has spread a chemical on floors throughout the building in

the hope of absorbing any remaining mercury vapors.

“The situation continues; people are still not allowed back in,” Ian s,

a Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson, said on Monday. “The

vapor levels for mercury are still high.”

s said floors and walls in two additional apartments are being removed

this week in the search for more mercury.

“They’re still ventilating the building and they’re also using

vapor-filtration systems, blowers with charcoal-filter systems which are

supposed to filter out various vapors, including mercury vapor,” he said. “The

work is continuing seven days a week.”

Two weeks ago The Villager reported that a ground-floor shoe store remained

open despite the building’s evacuation. Subsequently, s said, “The shoe

store has been tested and the reason it’s not closed is because they didn’t find

any mercury in that area.”

Markowitz, a representative for the landlord who has been at the

building almost daily to coordinate cleanup efforts, declined to comment.

According to The Standard Manhattan Residential Directory, a volume of building

information used by the real estate industry, the building’s owner, Janart

Equities, bought the six-story structure in June 1972 for $225,000. The landlord

has offered to cover living expenses for the displaced tenants, but only until

Feb. 1. After several weeks in different hotels, Carol — in whose

apartment the mercury was found — took up temporary residence in a West Village

furnished apartment last weekend.

Early on Thursday morning Jan. 12 when , a longtime resident of the

building and a leader of the Eighth St. Block Association, found a silvery

liquid dripping from a ceiling into one of her bedrooms. When authorities

arrived, they determined that liquid mercury had spilled into her apartment from

above. Within hours, the building’s 15 residents had been evacuated.

The next day, a private environmental cleaning contractor hired by the

building’s owners began removing the contents of one room from the apartment for

incineration. Over the course of several days, stood on the street

watching as more of her possessions were carried out for disposal. “I want it to

come to some conclusion,” said recently, reflecting on life while living

out of a suitcase. “I’ve been set adrift.”

Mark Catalina has lived above for several years. “There’s really no one

to blame for this,” Catalina said Sunday night. Forced to live in a nearby

hotel, he added, “It hasn’t been unpleasant because everybody’s been trying to

get this solved.” Over the weekend Catalina learned that the floorboards of two

rooms of his apartment would be removed this week as the search for mercury

continued.

“We still do not know where it came from,” said D.E.P.’s s said. “If we

can find an additional source of it in the building somewhere, maybe that would

lead us to it. At this point we just don’t know.”

Mercury was once commonly used in several artistic and industrial processes.

For hundreds of years, artisans used a process known as mercury gilding, or fire

gilding, to melt gold onto their artistic creations. In this process mercury was

mixed with gold and the resulting amalgam was applied to an item (usually

bronze, copper or silver) and heated. The mercury would vaporize, leaving a gold

coating. However, heating the amalgam released toxic mercury vapors which

ultimately proved deadly to the craftspeople utilizing the technique. The

process was eventually banned and replaced by electroplating, in which an

electric current was passed through the gold, adhering it to the surface.

The presence of mercury in the building could possibly be traced to two

sculptors who resided there in the 1930s. The Greenwich Village Historical

District Designation Report, issued by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in

1969, mentions that the building was home to two noted sculptors, Gaston

Lachaise and Oronzio Maldarelli.

Lachaise, one of the most renowned sculptors of the early 20th century, was

famous for his bronze renderings of the female form. Maldarelli was also a

sculptor using bronze as a medium. However it is not known if they created any

sculptures in the building using mercury.

consulted a cross-reference directory of early 20th-century Manhattan

and found Lachaise did reside in the building in 1932 but on the top floor,

several floors above her apartment.

Mercury was also widely used for industrial purposes, most commonly in the

shaping of forms for felt hats. The term “mad as a hatter” derives from the

neurological damage and early-onset senility suffered by hat makers working with

the heavy metal. The hat industry, once largely concentrated around the

Housatonic and Connecticut Rivers in the Northeast, contaminated those rivers

and adjoining areas by dumping chemical waste into the water. Mercury would

accumulate in the mud along the riverbanks, where a conversion process known as

methydration would occur. The result was the creation of the most toxic and most

biocompatable form of mercury, easily able to cross cell membranes and create

toxicity problems in humans. However, it was not readily verifiable if any

manufacturing or other industrial business ever existed above the first floor of

the Eighth St. building, which was built in the 1890s.

Several days after the building’s evacuation, the Department of Health sent

tenants a letter advising them to be tested at the Poison Control Center at

Bellevue hospital. A urine test to detect the presence of mercury in their

systems and a noninvasive sobriety and dexterity test was administered to

determine any neurological or brain damage.

Last week heard some good news for a change when the Poison Control

Center called to report that her “tests came back zero.” However, to be safe,

she was asked to return for retesting, including a blood test, last Wednesday,

which also came back negative.

“Mercury is a stubborn substance,” D.E.P.’s s said on Monday. “The

levels came down from where they had been originally measured and they leveled

out. But, they’ve leveled out above where the acceptable level is. At this

point, we’re trying to see if there are any additional sources by ventilating

the building.”

“I’ll just be relieved when the cleanup’s over,” said after learning

her medical results. “I just want to go home, sit in my chair, have a tea, watch

television or read a book.”

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