The story of the mercury clean up was a television news item. Some children had found a small container of it, and played with it before it was discovered that they were into something dangerous.
I don't recall any information on the children's well-being, though one was shown looking rather sheepish.
As near as I can remember, it was within the last year.
We bought a case of 1 pound containers of Pascalite, more than 10 years ago. Over the years we read more and more about it...still, we are working on the first bottle.
Because it is found only one place on Earth, we now feel we must conserve our supply, using it very gingerly.