ARSENAL TEAMS STILL LOOKING FOR CLUES IN RASH CASE

By Wilson Brown/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

Pine Bluff Arsenal officials, along with a two-person Army team from Maryland, have yet to find out what substance caused an Arsenal worker and two paramedics to break out in a rash last week.

"They're still taking (air and surface) samples," spokeswoman Barbara Slifer said Wednesday afternoon.

It has been a week since a 39-year-old worker was taken to Jefferson Regional Medical Center when he developed a rash, itching and shortness of breath after he handled boxes from Kuwait.

The two ambulance workers also developed similar symptoms while treating the man.

Slifer said officials might find the cause of the apparent allegeric reactions by next week when the Arsenal receives its sample results.

"We've determined in some cases what it wasn't," she said.

Slifer would not go into detail.

Last week, Jerry Weilacher, an industrial hygiene program manager with the Arsenal, ruled out organic vapors from a forklift as a cause of the apparent allegeric reaction.

"We have collected more than 100 samples so far," Weilacher said Wednesday. "Initial sample results do not indicate the presence of hazardous chemicals."

According to Weilacher, 44 of the samples were sent to certified laboratories for tests.

So far, the incomplete tests "include those that might indicate the presence of pesticide, organic vapors, particulates and allergens," Weilacher said.

The Arsenal should have those sample results by next week, he said, while tests for biological and chemical agents came back negative, according to Slifer.

Slifer said the Arsenal does plan to do more medical tests to check the worker's "specific sensitivities."

The unnamed worker was released and returned to work after being treated, decontaminated and kept at JRMC overnight for examination, Slifer said.

The team from the Army's Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine from Aberdeen, Md., arrived Tuesday to assist the Arsenal in the investigation.

Slifer said the Maryland team will leave either today or Friday.