DOH: Mercury spilled at Fabella hospital

MANILA, Philippines - Forty patients were moved from the pediatric ward at the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital after mercury spilled from a broken container in a storage room adjacent to the ward last Aug. 8, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.

DOH Assistant Secretary Dr. Eric Tayag said a “chemical spill cleanup was already underway” after “unacceptable levels of ambient mercury” had been detected in and around the storage room.

“We do not know the actual circumstances (yet),” he said, adding that they will wait for the report of the Bureau of Fire Protection’s hazardous materials unit, whose members were called upon to determine the extent of the chemical spill and initiate “remediation procedures.”

Tayag said Health Secretary Enrique Ona had directed hospital officials to prioritize the patients’ safety. He also said the hospital will continue to accept and care for patients as experts assessed that there is no need for evacuation.

According to Tayag, Fabella is one of the hospitals that discontinued the use of mercury-containing devices after the DOH ordered the gradual phaseout of these devices in all health care facilities from 2008 to 2010. 

The spilled mercury, an alloy used in dental fillings, was being stored temporarily by Fabella until the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) can collect it for proper disposal.

Ona “laments that this incident happened and ordered a review of proper and safe storage and disposal of harmful chemicals, particularly mercury, in all hospitals to prevent a similar incident from happening again,” Tayag said.

The DOH is also monitoring the health of around 30 people who may have been exposed to the spilled mercury. 

Proper storage

Non-government organization Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) has expressed concern over the incident, saying this should have not happened if the chemical was properly stored at Fabella.

“That is the most important question now – how they store mercury at Fabella.  If they keep it properly, according to the guidelines issued by the DOH, the chance of spillage or theft is small,” said HCWH Safer Chemical Campaigner Faye Ferrer.

She claimed that under the guidelines, plastic should be the “primary, secondary and tertiary containers” for mercury to avoid breakage.

Ferrer also urged the DENR to scale up its collection and disposal systems for mercury from health care facilities.

“Mercury is a complicated issue in terms of storage because this chemical cannot be destroyed. But since the ban was issued in 2008, the DENR should already have a procedure on how it can reinforce the in-house storage of DOH,” she added.

Ferrer maintained that DENR, by this time, should have already sped up the process of establishing regional, city or municipal-based storage systems for the hazardous chemical.