Mysterious mercury spill is the 4th in Vancouver over the past month

Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services' hazardous material team was called to a mercury spill in Vancouver Monday morning. It was the fourth known mercury spill in the city since mid-September, in a string of mysterious incidents.

"It's all very strange," said Jonathan Gormick, VFRS spokesperson.

Gormick said crews were called to the spill on West Hastings Street between Howe and Hornby streets around 9:30 a.m.

They arrived to find between 300 and 500 millilitres of mercury spread out over a few metres of sidewalk in front of a business.

"That's certainly too much to come from a single consumer product like an old thermometer or a thermostat," he said, adding the Vancouver police would investigate the cause fo the spill. "My estimation is that it either came from an industrial source, or someone has been collecting mercury from smaller sources."

Gormick said a contractor was called in to collect the mercury, due to the large quantity.

He said the spill was unlike the previous three that recently occurred — each of those cases happened in the southwest part of Stanley Park, in or near public washrooms. They all involved small amounts of the metal and were tied to broken thermostats or thermometers.

A spokesperson with the Vancouver Police Department said investigators were reviewing all of the recent mercury spill incidents to determine if they are linked.

Gormick said, beyond the toxic substance in question, there was nothing obvious to tie Monday's spill to the other three.

In 2016, there was another mysterious mercury spill at English Bay in Vancouver. In that case, about half a cup of the metal was recovered.

He said if anyone finds mercury anywhere, they should avoid touching it and call 911 to let first responders know.

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