Michael Leary, left, Health Inspector James O'Brien and Fire Director Stephen Meranti discuss incident.

The Ambulatory Care Center remained open while the affected room was closed off by the hazardous waste team.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The North Adams offices of Northern Berkshire Pediatric had to be closed Thursday after a mercury blood-pressure reader broke.

Fire Director Stephen Meranti said no one was injured and the spill was contained to a single room in the practice's third floor suite in the Ambulatory Care Center on Berkshire Medical Center's Northern Berkshire campus.

The spill had been contained by the regional hazardous waste team and a private contractor would be remediating the room in which the spill occurred.

The North Adams office hopes to reopen on Monday, said Jackie Latimer, a registered nurse with the pediatric practice. Patients calling the main number would be forwarded, and she asked that if there is a glitch in calling to continue following the prompt.

There will be no walk-in hours on Friday at the practice's Williamstown and Adams locations and the practice is making arrangements for rescheduling or relocating visits, most likely to the Williamstown office.

"The proper people are handling the situation and we think that this should be smooth," Latimer said. "We appreciate the community's patience with this matter."

Meranti, speaking with Health Inspector James O'Brien and Berkshire Health Systems spokesman Michael Leary at North Adams Ambulance Service (which is the all agency communication center in such incidences), said the report of the spill had occurred shortly after 10 a.m.

"We received the report, we got on scene, we evacuated the office for the pediatrics and we called in the hazmat team," he said.

Testing in the corridors and the areas around the suite found zero readings and the building remained open. Anyone entering was informed as to the situation.

"The rest of the building and the entire rest of the campus was operating as usual," Leary said.

The mercury sphygmomanometer was an older unit that had been in the office for years, Meranti said, and the amount of mercury spilled was about the same as a household thermometer.

"There was one person directly in contact with the mercury and she was checked out by the EMS on scene and then she went to the ER on her own and got checked out there," he said.

O'Brien said a patient who had been in the room earlier had her clothing checked but readings were zero.

Employees and anyone who may have been in offices around the time of the spill can go on Friday to the North Adams Health Department at City Hall in the morning or the pediatric practice's 19 Depot St., Adams, offices in the afternoon for urine screenings.   

"If people have concerns, it's going to be set up in the morning and afternoon it doesn't hurt to get checked," O'Brien said.

In the meantime, the room has been isolated and covered up and the mercury collected and contained. Hazmat was working with building maintenance to set up a separate ventilation system and the building's system was being rebooted after being shut down to prevent vapors from escaping.

"The doctor's office has been working very closely with us on it," Meranti said, along with other state and local agencies, and Berkshire Medical Center.

"It was a quick response time and all individuals involved were both professional and studious of anyone possibly affected," O'Brien said.

The city had several mercury incidents in 2008, including the evacuation of Conte Middle School. Meranti said that incident had made things smoother this time around.

"Having been through the school one, we knew all the players, we knew who to contact," Meranti said. "In fact, I had a few business cards in my wallet from then. We made some phone calls up the chain, down the state."

Anyone with concerns about the incident can call 413-664-4934, the Northern Berkshire Regional Emergency Planning Committee line, to be forwarded to the appropriate person.

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