MEDICAL TEAM RETURNS TO MARYLAND AFTER ARSENAL PROBE

By The Commercial staff

An Army medical team sent to the Pine Bluff Arsenal after three people suffered reactions last week has returned to Maryland.

Test results and analysis of samples the team took from an area housing shipping containers could arrive by month's end, an Arsenal spokeswoman said.

"I think all the sampling that's going to be done has been done," Barbara Slifer, the Arsenal's public affairs officer, said Friday.

On May 12, an Arsenal employee developed a rash, severe itching and difficulty breathing after taking inventory of several containers. Two paramedics developed similar symptoms while taking the worker to Jefferson Regional Medical Center.

Samples of a "solid residue" sent Thursday from the Arsenal to Maryland had nothing to do with last week's incident, but are being studied in connection with the facility's plans to neutralize and dispose of chemical weapons, Slifer said.

An article in Friday's edition of The Commercial, based on a statement from the Arsenal, was incorrect.

A team of specialists was dispatched by the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. The specialists work at the Army Center for Health Promotions and Preventive Medicine, which is part of the Army Medical Department.

Preliminary tests conducted by the Arsenal, which houses 12 percent of the nation's inventory of chemical weapons, found no sign of biological or chemical agents, Slifer said.

Arsenal investigators collected more than 100 test samples and sent 44 of them to laboratories for analysis.

The Arsenal worker, the two paramedics and their ambulance were decontaminated at the hospital prior to treatment. The worker was hospitalized for one day for observation and has returned to work.

The Arsenal worker, who is 39 and has not been identified, was part of a two-person crew assigned to a "basic inventory" of several large, metal containers sent to the Arsenal from Kuwait.

Inside the containers were pallets of cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic. None of the cardboard boxes had been opened, according to Col. Tom Woloszyn, commander of the Arsenal.

The boxes held various types of protective equipment, such as chemical suits, gloves and masks, sent to the region for use by American troops.

The items being inventoried last week had not been used by troops, Woloszyn said.

The Arsenal has been a key supply point of this type of material, some of which is made or repaired by Arsenal personnel, he said.