CEDAR RAPIDS, IA — School maintenance personnel can do a valuable service to their employers by spearheading an inventory of potentially harmful substances — starting with the custodians' closets.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources estimates that some 800,000 pounds of potentially harmful substances can be found in the state's schools.

The East Central Iowa Council of Governments coordinated an investigation of six eastern Iowa schools, turning up aging and dangerous chemicals. Some were in custodians' closets; more could be found in science labs and art rooms.

The council says results could be extrapolated to schools throughout the state.

Reporting on the investigation, the Des Moines Register reports that some of the chemicals, after sitting on shelves for decades, could explode if exposed to water or air. Others are known to cause cancer and still others are toxic.

Reports detail materials that were removed from six eastern Iowa schools this month after a Department of Natural Resources study. State government officials and chemical experts said they think a larger study would reveal similar problems statewide.

The federal government requires schools to list each chemical, its properties, its hazards and methods for disposal. The project was designed to bring schools into compliance.

In one case, a jar of phosphorus had aged to the point residue on the outside had crystallized, which could have resulted in an explosion; vaporizing chemicals had corroded the shelf where it was found.

A spokesperson said investigators found jars of explosive picric acid from 1969 and a container of radioactive uranium acetate.

Rusted cans of the banned insecticide DDT were found in one school.

State Rep. Geri Huser (D-Altoona) an Altoona Democrat says she'll seek $4 million in funding over five years to help pay for disposal and to train at least one employee at every school in the state in the handling of chemicals.

Proposed legislation also would mandate that safe handling of chemicals be taught in every science class and would give money to schools that agree to reduce the amount of chemicals that are used and stored.

A chemical disposal company eventually removed 10,000 pounds of material from the schools and created a chemical database with nearly 7,000 entries.

Investigators found an average of five pounds of mercury in each school.

Cancer-causing chemicals were found in at least four of the six schools in the pilot project.