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Wayneson Karratti was alerted by police about mercury contamination when he visited his grandmother yesterday morning at Puuwai Momi housing in Halawa. Family unaware of
exposure’s effectsBy Rosemarie Bernardo
Star-BulletinKarratti, 25, said he noticed police isolating the housing area with yellow tape about 10 a.m. He later found out from police that the area was being isolated because of mercury contamination.
Karratti's 8-year-old cousin, Darlani Kaai, said she found a bottle full of mercury by a stairway near the grandmother's apartment at Puuwai Momi Sunday.
At their Pupupuhi Street home, his cousins, Darlani, 11-year-old Kalani and 13-year-old Ikaika played with the mercury in their bedroom.
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"There were little balls (of mercury) all over the carpet," Karratti said. He said he and the children weren't aware of the side effects of mercury until police informed him.
"I was scared," he said. About 11 a.m., he notified his aunt's boyfriend, Richard Ancog, who works at Sunset Grill as a prep cook.
Karratti picked up Darlani and Kalani at Waipahu Elementary School and Ikaika at Waipahu Intermediate School at 1:30 p.m.
Ikaika described the liquid as a silver liquid that looked similar to the liquid in the movie "Terminator 2."
Karratti took his cousins, including Kelii Pulawa, 18, who lives in the Pupupuhi Street home, to the emergency room at St. Francis Medical Center West. They were later released.
The four exposed to the mercury said they didn't experience any side effects.
The children told Karratti that a boy who lives at Puuwai Momi, accompanied by other kids, took the mercury from a warehouse near the Arizona Memorial.
Karratti's cousins will stay with relatives at Kuhio Park Terrace.
THE mercury was "all over the floor" in an abandoned warehouse, said a Halawa boy who shared the silvery, slippery liquid metal with friends. Kids played with it,
put it in their hairBy Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin"We carried it in bags and jars," said Joseph Tuua, 13, of Puuwai Momi housing in Halawa. "We stepped on it and watched it splatter."
The Aiea Intermediate School student said yesterday that he was one of the first to scavenge the curious material from under machinery in the warehouse. He said he didn't bring it into his house or into school.
Katie Williams said: "You can see it, little tiny silver balls all over the yard. I stepped on it barefoot, my 2-year-old stepped on it."
"My 15-year-old has been touching it and he's got to go to the hospital."
Williams and her four children were among the Puuwai Momi and Makalapa Manor residents who planned to spend last night at the Halawa District Park gymnasium where the Hawaii Chapter of American Red Cross established a shelter.
After authorities quarantined the housing areas, children from three Aiea schools and the Head Start program at Makalapa Community Center were taken to the Halawa District Park by city bus. Most were picked up later by parents, but several families settled in for the night.
Diana Bounds, an HCAP community worker, estimated that 150 children had been brought to the Halawa site.
Imi'ike Keliiwaiwaiole, 12, said one of his classmates spilled the liquid in their Aiea Elementary School room about four weeks ago. "She had poured it into a glass pen. The teacher told us to help her clean it up with towels."
"It feels like egg yolk," he said. "My friend Lofa was slamming it on his desk and it got into a cut on his hand."
Yesterday, he said, a boy brought a glass tube of mercury to school and it broke. He thought that was when school authorities learned about it.
"It looks like a cool thing, but it's not," said his mother, Lorraine Keliiwaiwaiole. She picked him up at the Halawa park and said their next stop was the doctor's office.
Tiare Barona, 13, said she put a plastic detergent bottle full of mercury into the refrigerator freezer at home. "I guess all the food is contaminated and we'll have to throw it out.
"It's all over the place," she said.
"My cousin's ring was gold and it turned to silver color when she handled (mercury.) People would put it in people's hair."
Mercury is a metallic chemical element known as "quicksilver" from the Roman god Mercury. 'Quicksilver' is a metal of many uses
It's the only common metal that exists as a liquid at ordinary temperatures. The pure metal appears silver-white, like a mirror.
When spilled, it breaks into tiny beads which can become lodged in cracks.
It is used in barometers and manometers, and also in thermometers because of a high rate of thermal expansion that is fairly constant over a wide temperature range.
Other uses include mercury-vapor lights and lamps used for street lighting.
It's used with other metals for filling teeth, as a purgative in medicine, an insecticide in rat poison and as a disinfectant.
Mercury poisoning can cause neurological and kidney damage and affect respiratory and gastrointestinal systems.
The phrase "mad as a hatter" refers to a 19th century disease resulting from prolonged contact with mercury used to make felt hats.
Most mercury pesticides have been taken off the U.S. market, and many countries banned ocean dumping of mercury and other pollutants in 1972.
Most medical uses have been banned or are being phased out, but industrial use of mercury is increasing.
Source: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001.