Tooele Transcript Bulletin

July 19, 2001

Source of agent in burner hall unknown

by Jeff Schmerker
Staff Writer

Officials at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility are still trying to
figure out why a very small amount of nerve agent was detected in an
observation corridor Monday night.

A sensitive air monitoring device alarmed at 10:22 p.m. Monday night
signaling a GB nerve agent level of 0.43 time-weighted average was present.
Studies indicate a worker could work in the presence of GB vapor at 1.00 TWA
for eight hours a day over an entire career with no adverse health effects.

The observation corridor is on the first floor mezzanine of the Army,s
munitions demilitarization building, which has been used to destroy chemical
agent found in aging weapons since 1996.

The alarm was close to an exit door from the toxic maintenance area where
hazardous items are handled for destruction, said Mark Mesesan, a spokesman
for EG&G, the Army,s primary contractor at the incinerator.

Eight minutes before the hallway alarm went off a group of two maintenance
workers exited the toxic maintenance area, said Mesesan. Though the workers
were wearing adequate protective clothing and equipment and had been checked
before leaving the area to make sure than any agent on their suits was
cleaned off, Mesesan said it was possible the agent detected was associated
with that exit.

The maintenance workers and their two-person support crew had already left
the area, said Mesesan, but they, along with other incinerator employees who
were in the hallway when the alarm went off, were sent to the depot,s on-base
medical clinic for observation. Since the detected agent level was less than
1.0 time weighted average, more intensive health studies, such as blood work,
were not performed.

A sophisticated air monitoring system in the plant quantified the level of
agent vapor as being so low there was no threat to human health, said
Mesesan, and there was no agent released to the environment outside the
plant. The workers did not exhibit any symptoms of agent exposure, Mesesan
added.