A chemistry building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is undergoing rigorous decontamination precautions after a student claimed to have synthesized a dangerous chemical while working in a lab.
The situation started when a graduate student arrived at a local emergency room saying they had synthesized dimethyl mercury, a hazardous chemical, while working in Building 18, or the Dreyfus Building, a chemistry building on the Cambridge campus. This was on Wednesday.
“Emerging information calls into question whether this compound was in fact synthesized. We are also able to disclose, with the student’s permission, that while the student remains under medical supervision, their initial blood test result, which was received today, shows no sign of exposure to mercury,” an MIT spokesperson wrote in an update to the school community on Saturday.
The student was not authorized to be working with the compound, school officials said.
Dimethyl mercury is considered highly toxic and poses “a serious environmental and health hazard,” according to studies found in the EPA’s Health and Environmental Research Online database.
It requires specific protective equipment, according to an OSHA Hazard Information Bulletin, which notes that the compound was blamed for the death of a chemistry professor in 1997. It can be absorbed through the skin, and exposure to even small amounts can prove fatal.
MIT officials closed Building 18 and called in city emergency responders to assess and begin cleanup efforts. School officials have said they believe there is low risk of exposure has contacted anyone who was in close proximity to the student or the space they were working.
“As the chemistry department, industrial hygienists, MIT Health medical experts, and other resources consulted collect additional information, we continue to believe there is a very low risk of secondary or tertiary exposures,” the school said in a statement.
Common areas in the student’s residence hall were also professionally cleaned as a precaution and the student’s unit was sealed, though the rest of the building is open and operating normally.
Building 18 remains closed at least through Sunday as the testing and investigation continues.