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United States II: Alarms Detect Sarin Gas at Army Incinerator Six workers exposed to sarin nerve gas Sunday at the U.S. Army’s chemical weapons incinerator near Stockton, Utah, have shown no symptoms of medical problems (see GSN, Nov. 29). Alarms sounded when two workers at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility were removing a piece of piping that carries sarin nerve agent to an incinerator when a small amount of sarin liquid agent dripped out. The agent vaporized quickly, setting off an air monitor alarm. The time-weighted average (TWA) of the lethal vapor in the room rose to 29,000, according Ted Ryba, a manager at the facility. A worker can safely breathe the vapor for eight hours a day at a level of one TWA. Ryba said the level was not unusual for the situation. The two workers, who wore protective gear but not the full suit used for the most dangerous tasks, left the room and were decontaminated by four other workers wearing protective equipment. An alarm sounded briefly in the decontamination room after the six workers left, but sensors indicated only a level of 0.26 TWA. All of the workers went to the facility’s clinic where medical personnel observed them, and the original two workers gave blood samples that showed no sign of the nerve agent. The workers returned to their jobs after no medical problems appeared. “At no time was there danger to the public or the environment,” said Chuck Sprague, spokesman for Desert Chemical Depot, adding that the facility’s employees were well trained for such incidents. Before work such as replacing the piping, the line to the incinerator was cleaned with high-pressure air, but the drop of liquid remained in the pipe, perhaps due to the pipe’s orientation, Ryba said (Joe Bauman, Deseret News, Jan. 7). Another Incident Sarin gas was detected at the facility again yesterday inside two shipping containers holding 155 mm artillery shells. “Workers were performing routine monitoring of the ambient air inside the shipping containers,” said a Desert Chemical Depot news release. The detected vapor posed no threat to workers, the public or the environment, the depot said (Deseret News, Jan. 7).
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