Mercury Poisoning One tiny drop of mercury shatters lives and science LYME, N.H. (AP) — It was just a drop of liquid, That night, Leon drove her to the emergency just a tiny glistening drop. It glided over her glove room. It was Monday, Jan. 20, 1997, five months like a jewel. since she had spilled the drop in the lab. Scientist Karen Wetterhahn knew the risks: The Just a single drop of liquid. Yet somehow it had bad stuff kills if you get too close. penetrated her skin. She took all the precautions working with mer- By the weekend, Karen couldn't walk, her speech cury in her Dartmouth College lab — wearing pro- was slurred and her hands trembled. Leon paced the tective gloves and eye goggles, working under a house. "Virus" seemed an awfully vague diagnosis, ventilated hood that sucks up chemical fumes. for symptoms that were getting worse every day. So on that sunny day in August, when she acci- "It's mercury poisoning," Dr. David Nierenberg dentally spilled a drop, she didn't think anything of said. "We have to start treatment immediately." it. She washed her hands, cleaned her instruments Leon hung up with relief. At last, they understood and went home. the problem. Now maybe they could fix it. It was just a drop of liquid, just a tiny glistening It seemed impossible to believe that anything drop. could be wrong with Karen Wetterhahn, one of At first, friends thought she had caught a stomach those quietly impressive individuals whose lives bug on her trip to Malaysia. It wasn't until she seemed charmed from the start. started bumping into doors that her husband, Leon Serious and hardworking, she excelled at every - Webb, began to worry. Karen, always so focused, thing she turned to — science or sailing or skiing. always so sure of her next step, was suddenly falling She grew up near Lake Champlain in upstate New down as if she were drunk. York in a family so close that when she and her only In 15 years together, she had never been sick, nev- sister became mothers, they named their daughters er stopped working, never complained. Leon was after each other: Charlotte and Karen. stunned when she called for a ride home from work. Karen was always the brilliant one of the family, Over lunch a few days later, Karen confided to her the one who would do great things. And she did, be- best friend, Cathy Johnson, that she hadn't felt right coming the first woman chemistry professor at for some time. Words seemed to be getting stuck in Dartmouth, running a world-renowned laboratory her throat. Her hands tingled. It felt like her whole on chromium research, devoting herself to her body was moving in slow motion. work. "Karen," Johnson said as she drove her back to It was important work, the kind that could lead to the college, "we've got to get you to the hospital." cures for cancer and AIDS. Karen thrived on it. She "After work," Karen promised, walking unsteadi- loved nothing more than experimenting with a ly into the Burke chemistry building for the last chemical, figuring out its bad side and how it breaks time. down living things. Karen Wetterhahn, a chemistry Professor at Dartmouth College, died of mercury poisoning after spilling just one drop in a labor- atory on Aug. 14, 1996. The mercury penetrated her skin through gloves.