DOH steps up clean-up effort for contaminated school

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said yesterday that everything is being done to clean the mercury-contaminated St. Andrew’s School in Parañaque City so it could open this coming school year.

Duque noted that Netherland-based Royal Haskoning had even volunteered to send their consultant to help in the cleaning operation.

The volunteers, he claimed, would perform the decontamination procedures under the technical supervision of the United States Environment Protection Agency (US-EPA).

"We are doing everything we can to finish the clean-up process in the soonest time possible so that the school can go with its business, students can enroll and parents can be assured that their children are in a safe environment," Duque added.

Last Feb. 16, some 80 students and teachers fell ill after they were exposed to mercury which spilled in a classroom during a science experiment. – Sheila Crisostomo