In process for the healthcare thread.
Blister Agent Contamination Confirmed at Oregon Site
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency said yesterday that an employee at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon did last week come into contact with liquid mustard agent, the Tri-City, Wash., Herald reported (see GSN, March 22).
It was the second incident of chemical agent contamination in the history of U.S. chemical weapons disposal efforts, CMA spokesman Greg Mahall said
It appears that a droplet of blister agent penetrated the worker’s safety clothing last Wednesday as he worked inside an incineration facility with mustard container measuring equipment that is likely to have carried a small amount of the material. The exposure was confirmed after examining videos, a record of facility operations and mustard agent monitoring equipment.
As the chemical was not in gas form, the risk of breathing it in was low, Mahall said. The worker developed a small blister as a result of the mustard contact but he returned to work the next day and the skin wound is already going away (Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald, March 23).
http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20100323_9159.php