A student at MIT claimed he synthesized one of the world’s deadliest chemicals last week — sparking a massive hazmat response and the closure of the lab where he worked.
The unidentified grad student arrived at a local emergency room, saying he had synthesized dimethyl mercury, a highly toxic compound that can be fatal if exposed to humans in even the smallest amounts, NBC Boston reported.
The student was not authorized to be working with the compound and it was not part of his research, according to school officials.
MIT closed off Building 18 where the experiment took place on Wednesday and called in city emergency responders to begin the cleanup.
Common areas in the student’s residence hall were also professionally cleaned as a precaution, and the student’s room was sealed off.
Building 18 remained closed through Sunday as testing and investigations continued.
“Emerging information calls into question whether this compound was in fact synthesized,” an MIT spokesperson said on Saturday.
“We are also able to disclose, with the student’s permission, that while the student remains under medical supervision, their initial blood test result, which was received today, shows no sign of exposure to mercury,” the spokesperson continued.
Dimethyl mercury can pose “a serious environmental and health hazard,” according to studies in the EPA’s Health Environmental Research Online database.
It was previously responsible for the death of Dartmouth College chemistry professor Karen Wetterhahn in 1997 after she got just one to two drops on her hand while wearing gloves.
It was also used in the assassination of a German labor union boss in 2012.
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