Mercury Detection: It's a "Ruff" Job

Reported December 2006

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- It's not often that you see a four-legged student roaming the school halls, but this dog is on a mission. Clancy is the only dog in the United States trained to sniff out dangerous mercury.

"A lot of time the kids will break lab thermometers and try to sweep them down into the sink, and can continuously put out vapor that the students can breathe and the teachers can breathe," Carol Hubbard, a mercury specialist with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in St. Paul, tells Ivanhoe.

She says breathing in that vapor can be dangerous. In young children, it can actually stunt their intellectual development.

But students at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have nothing to fear. Clancy can detect as little as a half a gram of mercury -- the same amount that spills out when a thermometer breaks. On command, he sits next to the hidden mercury and waits for his reward -- a tennis ball.

Student Andre Washington says, "If he's able to sniff out that stuff and save us from the mercury exposure, I think he's a really good dog!"

"He sniffs out mercury," David Hanvichid says. "That's an incredible ability that a dog can do!"

Incredible, but also in his nature. Dogs can detect odors 44-times better than humans. They pick up scents through folded membranes right behind their noses -- right in front of their brains. Humans' membranes are the size of a postage stamp, but dogs' are 50-times bigger.

Clancy finds unexpected mercury in a school supply room. Hubbard tests the area with her machine to make sure he's right. And he is!

"He is pretty reliable," Hubbard says. He's also quicker, cheaper and better company than her equipment. "We have gotten to be really good friends. He is my partner, so we have a lot of fun."

And they get a lot done! In the last five years, Clancy helped rid schools of more than 1,500 pounds of mercury.

Hubbard and her colleagues got Clancy from the humane society. They said they picked him because he was so responsive to tennis balls, indicating he'd work hard for his reward. It took her about two months to train Clancy. Both Hubbard and Clancy get their blood levels tested for mercury -- his every six months, hers every 12 -- and they've always tested normal.

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

If you would like more information, please contact:

Carol Hubbard
Mercury Specialist
Minnesota Protection Control Agency
Saint Paul, Minnesota
(651) 282-2604
carol.hubbard@pca.state.mn.us

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