The Hazardous Materials Unit of the Bureau of Fire Protection has finished cleaning up a portion of the state-run maternity hospital reputed to be Manila’s “baby factory”, where a chemical spill last week forced health officials to move patients away from the incident area.
In a statement, the Department of Health (DOH) said it ordered a decontamination of the storeroom at Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital where the spill occurred. As a precaution, doctors moved away some 40 patients in the facility’s pediatric ward, which was adjacent to the storeroom.
All patient areas in the hospital, known for consistently having the most number of live births in the Philippines every year, were tested for ambient mercury after the cleanup, and results were negative, according to the health department.
Authorities detected “unacceptable levels of ambient mercury” in the area as liquid dental amalgam—which dentists use as tooth filling—spilled from broken containers sometime on Thursday.
Health Secretary Enrique Ona formed an investigating team to look into the incident. It remains unclear why Fabella kept mercury amalgam in storage despite a department order declaring it obsolete.
He also reminded “all health facilities in the country to comply with the DOH directive on the phase-out of mercury containing devices including amalgam with their secure and proper storage and permanent disposal. “Disposal of these chemicals should be coordinated with DENR,” he said.
Ona reiterated the gravity of such incidents in general, saying such chemical spills require immediate cleanup to “prevent or limit” exposure of the chemicals to people.
In the case of mercury, exposure to its vapor can cause acute and chronic health effects in a person’s brain, lungs and kidneys, depending on the amount and time of a victim’s exposure.
Around 80 hospital personnel, including the Hazmat cleanup team, underwent blood mercury testing to ensure that they did not inhale any trace of the chemical in their system. The testing did not include patients since they did not have any direct contact with the chemical.
Hospital staff who went through the blood mercury testing were identified as those who were in and around the spill area as the incident happened, according to Ona. The health secretary said he would wait for the clearance of the Hazmat team on using the area again for the hospital’s needs. Until the green light comes, Ona maintained the spill site is off limits.–MM
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Photo: Flashbang
