Army officials investigate sarin trace at incinerator

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Alabama
TIMES DAILY
Army officials investigate sarin trace at incinerator
February 6, 2004

Officials at the Army's chemical weapons incinerator spent Thursday
trying to figure out why small amounts of a deadly nerve agent were
detected in an observation room.

Operations at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility shut down
Wednesday afternoon after a monitor detected sarin gas in the air and on
two workers. The Army resumed operations around noon Thursday, about 20
hours after the initial alarm.

No one was injured, but trace amounts of sarin escaped the plant's most
protected area when the two workers were transported from the main
furnace building to the incinerator's medical center.

Other workers put on protective masks and evacuated the corridor,
located inside the building that houses the incinerator's three
furnaces. No agent left the building, spokesman Mike Abrams said.

The incinerator was destroying rockets filled with gelled or
crystallized sarin.

The alarm indicated a "minute" amount of chemical agent in the area, the
Army said in a statement. Sarin is extremely dangerous; just a drop can
kill.

"The workers didn't have enough agent to harm the community or them,"
said Tim Garrett, the Army's project manager at the incinerator.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040206/APN/402060578

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