THE ARMY bomb disposal unit was called to Limerick yesterday for the second time in two days after an unsafe chemical was found in a school laboratory.
The alarm was raised after a quantity of picric acid was found in an unstable state during a routine audit of chemicals at St Enda’s Community School on the outskirts of the city shortly after 10.15am.
It was the second time in as many days that the team was deployed to Limerick to carry out a controlled explosion on chemicals found in a school science lab.
A similar-style explosion was carried out the previous day after a teacher at Coláiste Iosaef in Kilmallock, noticed that a chemical called dinitrophenylhydrazine had crystallised making it potentially hazardous.
Like picric acid, dinitrophenylhydrazine is a chemical reagent commonly used in school and university laboratories.
Both are normally safe but they can crystallise and become unstable and sensitive to heat and shock over time.