[CPEO-MEF] Sarin gas detected in depot air

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Alabama
THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS
Sarin gas detected in depot air
Katherine Bouma
11/08/03

Workers were evacuated from the laboratory at the Anniston chemical
weapons incinerator early Friday after an alarm detected sarin in a room
with no known source of the lethal gas, officials said.

An alarm in the laboratory sounded about 1:15 a.m., said Donavan Mager,
a spokesman for Westinghouse Anniston, the contractor running the
incinerator for the Army.

Workers were evacuated for 24 minutes as monitors throughout the 11-room
building checked the air every six minutes. No further alarms rang.

The sarin was detected in one unoccupied room used for maintenance of
monitoring equipment, Mager said. He said late Friday that he did not
know how recently the technician working in that room had left to go to
the main incinerator complex.

The Army and Westinghouse said no workers were exposed.

The incident was the first confirmed detection of sarin in a worker
area. Mager said the lab manager, the plant manager and other officials
are interviewing employees to try to determine how volatile sarin
suddenly was present in the air in a room containing only equipment that
should have been clean.

"It's something we'll, hopefully, uncover in the next few days," he
said.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1068286640205810.xml

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