[CPEO-MEF] Mystery vials in Hawaii

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Mystery vials taken to safety 

The full-day operation tests the reflexes of multiple agencies

Vials were nearly trashed
Neighbors want to go home



By Gregg K. Kakesako
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
March 18, 2005

Army chemical specialists are working today to determine whether 74
vials of a yellowish liquid retrieved from a Maunalani Heights home are dangerous.

In an all-day operation yesterday, Paula Drive from 16th Avenue up
Maunalani Heights to just below Iwi Way was closed while a joint
city-state-federal hazardous-materials team retrieved a box of vials
discovered last year by Kelly McArthur. They tested her home and the
area nearby for hazardous materials. The roadblocks were lifted at 6:30
last night.

The vials were moved to Wheeler Army Airfield, but the operation ran
into a minor problem when investigators found what was believed to be an
inert mortar fuse in the home. The Army truck picked up the vials and
other materials at 7:20 p.m.

Although the city and state have been working and training together on
responding to incidents of possible chemical or biological contamination
since 1997, yesterday's incident was the first real case involving a
possibly hazardous substance -- what some suspected could be vials of
mustard gas a half-century old.

...

For the entire article, see
http://starbulletin.com/2005/03/18/news/story2.html

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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