Mercury Experiments In Class Can Be Poison

By Michelle Galley

Mercury and schools. The combination can make for engaging science classes, or potentially lethal consequences.

Are the risks worth the wow? The answer, increasingly, is no.

As stories about mercury spills at schools tumble across newspaper headlines, more states and districts are deciding that the educational benefits that mercury might have in lessons do not outweigh the hazards associated with handling the toxic, and enticing, element. Eleven states, at a minimum, have taken steps to rid schools of the substance through...