MIT’s Emergency Management Department said it would reopen a building Monday Aug. 31 at 6 a.m., more than four days after closing it due to potential for poisoning by dimethyl mercury.
The Emergency Management Department issued a statement at 10:17 p.m. saying that “appropriate decontamination protocols have now been completed in the lab space of the student who reported attempting the synthesis of dimethyl mercury. Given the actions we have taken and the information received, as well as consultations with industrial hygienists, medical experts at MIT Health, and outside experts, it is our assessment that it is now safe to reopen Building 18. The building will reopen at 6 a.m. tomorrow, Monday, August 31.”
Building 18 is in a part of the MIT campus bounded by Ames Street, Massachusetts Avenue, Memorial Drive and Vassar Street. It is formally known as the Camille Edouard Dreyfus Chemistry Building.
The note also said the student’s suite in a residence hall had also been decontaminated and unsealed. The residence hall was never closed.
Building 18 was initially closed last Wednesday, after a student reported a spill made during an attempt to synthesize dimethyl mercury, an extremely dangerous compound.
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