Dry run?

[Scott & Lai 12]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-me...-home-headlines

Mercury spill in L.A. subway probed

By Andrew Blankstein and Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writers

3:07 PM PST, January 18, 2007

Who is the young man in the sport coat shown on a grainy MTA videotape pouring mercury on the platform of the Red Line subway station at Pershing Square?

When it happened on Dec. 22, officials quickly labeled it a harmless accident.

But officials acknowledged today that the MTA badly botched its response to the incident, waiting eight hours after they were told mercury was on the platform before altering the Sheriff's Department and hazmat teams.

The incident represents a black eye for the transit agency, which since 9/11 has repeatedly touted its beefed-up security measures and increased employee training.

Saying that "basic protocols were not followed," MTA Chairwoman Gloria Molina today ordered an immediate investigation about what went wrong.

L.A. County Sheriff's Cmdr. Dan Finkelstein, who runs law enforcement operations on the MTA lines, said the incident shows that some transit workers have not been adequately trained to respond to potentially dangerous situations.

"We're geared up for things that we've been exposed to in the past, like suspicious packages," he said. "This is something that's never happened before."

The MTA has focused its anti-terrorism strategy on hundreds of security cameras placed at stations as well as patrols designed to identify suspicious people and packages.

The MTA has focused less attention on training for problems that involve chemicals and biological agents. While the agency has installed a gas detection system, workers have not been fully trained on how to deal with reports of hazardous materials.

"What we need to do is educate all levels throughout our system, whether it's intercom operators or maintenance staff, as well as bus or rail operators," Finkelstein said.

Security was beefed up at Pershing Square as the FBI searched for the mystery man. The Sheriff's Department has significantly increased the number of undercover officers riding rail lines in recent days.

The man is shown on the video talking to a second person about 10:45 p.m. before crouching and appearing to drop something on the subway platform.

The man then reaches for an MTA intercom and tells a worker: "I spilled mercury."

Mercury is a neurotoxin that can cause severe health problems if inhaled, ingested or touched. Officials believe the small amount of liquid mercury the man dropped would only be harmful if someone touched it or drank it.

Several terrorism experts said that the MTA's handling of the incident was troubling.

"It's unnerving, a wake-up call," USC Professor James Moore, a researcher with USC's Terrorism Center. "The lesson is that no matter how you slice it, the system isn't prepared to respond adequately. We really don't know what caused this failure, but we need to find out."

K. Jack Riley, acting director of the RAND Center on Quality Policing, said the best possible scenario is to have trained law enforcement professionals or security experts as part of the team monitoring security cameras. "They just have a better idea of what to look for and have been through simulations of different kinds."

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com

jean.guccione@latimes.com

[thaibu 0]

mercury is relatively harmless. and can be touched. I think it would do more harm to the trains or electrical system than to people just walking and cracking it around the subway.

Edited January 19, 2007 by thaibu

[Scott & Lai 12]

Mercury is still considered a hazardous substance, and can be harmful in sufficient concentrations. The thinking is that this may have been an attempt to test the responses of the MTA to a potential terrorist attack. If that is the case, then the MTA failed miserably.

[Mags 112]

Mercury is still considered a hazardous substance, and can be harmful in sufficient concentrations. The thinking is that this may have been an attempt to test the responses of the MTA to a potential terrorist attack. If that is the case, then the MTA failed miserably.

*agrees* Yes, mercury is still classed as a hazardous substance. Where I worked we used mercury bulbs for our microscopes. If one of them blew (happened about once a year) we had to evacuate the premises and wait for the specialist crew to come in a clean it up. This was because it was airborne though, not just laying on the ground.

[Caladan 19]

Mercury is still considered a hazardous substance, and can be harmful in sufficient concentrations. The thinking is that this may have been an attempt to test the responses of the MTA to a potential terrorist attack. If that is the case, then the MTA failed miserably.

Think a little. If you were an Uber-Secret Al-Qaeda Evil Evil Operative, though, wouldn't it be more useful for you to spill the mercury and just wait to see if they were able to detect it? Would you take the risk of going up to an official and saying you spilled it? Wouldn't you be more concerned with seeing if you could transport a canister or aerosol rather than placing mercury on the ground? If you were doing a dry run for an airborne toxin, would you pick a liquid? Would you pick a liquid that doesn't sublimate? Would you give them a reason to be subject to criticism? Would you do a test that would test the MTA's reaction time, or the rest of the protection of the city of New York?

MTA should have had a hazmat team there sooner (mercury is pretty easy to clean up.) Make sure the workers know what they're supposed to do and whom they're supposed to call. But in the event of a chemical or biological attack, it's going to be out of MTA's hands very fast anyway. Let them focus primariliy on packages and bombs, where they have a chance of spotting something and doing something about it.

[thaibu 0]

Nevertheless, still that man could have been pouring anthrax out of a pouch. Any suspicious activity should be investigated though.

Mercury on the otherhand is in about 90% of our mouths, ingested in tuna fish, and people have been know to ingest mercury from broken thermometers and swallowed tooth fillings.

[bostonparis 0]

I saw this on CNN - what bothers me is that it took authorities over 8 HOURS and two phone calls before they came to see what it was.