Feb 20, 2000 - 10:00 PM

Two Weapons Incinerator Workers Exposed to Nerve Agent

The Associated Press

TOOELE, Utah (AP) - Two workers repairing equipment at a chemical weapons incinerator were exposed to a deadly nerve agent Sunday when it leaked into a room where they were working.

The nerve agent did not show up in blood tests taken from the workers immediately after the leak was discovered, and the workers showed no symptoms of sarin exposure, said Deseret Chemical Depot spokesman Jon Pettebone.

When inhaled, sarin constricts the lungs and can halt breathing.

"They were exposed, but they weren't affected," Pettebone said. "There was agent in the room." Pettebone said the sarin vapors were confined to the area and posed no danger to the surrounding communities or environment.

The two workers were in a room at the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility repairing a conveyor belt that carries metal out of a decontamination furnace used to destroy traces of the nerve agent from metal, such as large containers.

The furnace had been turned off and allowed to cool before the workers entered the area. They were in the room and unprotected when a sarin-detection alarm went off, Pettebone said.

"They had their masks with them, but they did not have their masks on. The alarm went off, and that's when they got out quickly," he said.

The Tooele incinerator, about 50 miles west of Salt Lake City, has been operating since 1996. It was built to destroy nerve and blistering agents stockpiled at the Army's Deseret Chemical Depot since World War II.

The plant's safety has been questioned by a former permit manager who last month alleged that officials at the incinerator had rigged tests and misled state regulators to conceal the plant's inability to safely destroy nerve agents.

The former permit manager, Gary Harris, also said officials at the incinerator knew residue from sarin remained on weapons parts sent to a Denver scrap metal business between 1996 and 1998.

Officials with the Army and EG&G Defense Systems Inc., the contractor that runs the plant, say the incinerator is safe.

The Army is investigating the allegations.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGI0FGLHX4C.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 20, 2000

Answers

...posed no danger...posed no danger...posed no danger................

I'm starting to hear it in my sleep.:[

-- grannyclampett (notress@pass.ing), February 20, 2000.

It often takes YEARS of Research,to find out that Chemical Agents,added to Your Food and Soil is hazardous to Our Health,is it not AMAZING,everytime there are Problems like this,that they find out in Minutes that it "poses no Health Hazard to the Workers and nearby Community"????????

-- Keep it up,Criminals (Lies@BS.Lies), February 21, 2000.

what if they suddenly said yes we goofed, it does pose a danger....

Ps do you still say "goofed" , NB we don't

-- dick of the dale (richard.dale@unum.co.uk), February 21, 2000.

Ah, some credence for the "vaccination" theory of chem-trails. hehe

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), February 21, 2000.