Army officials have confirmed that a worker at Utah's chemical weapons incinerator came into contact with nerve agent vapor early Monday, the first confirmed exposure in that facility's history.The employee, whose name and age were withheld, already has returned to work, though in a limited capacity. Blood tests taken after agent monitors sounded in the room where he was working indicated an exposure to sarin, a lethal agent that attacks the nervous system.
The incident has launched at least two investigations, one by the contractor, EG&G Defense Materials, and one by the Army. While the Army has not admitted to any previous exposures at the Tooele incinerator or the stockpile it was built to destroy, an employee at the prototype incinerator facility on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean was burned by mustard agent in 1993.
Incinerator opponents, who have alleged a history of Army cover-ups regarding exposures and agent releases, blasted the program.
"Incineration has failed to protect workers," said Jason Groenewold, director of Utah's Families Against Incinerator Risk. "The best way to ensure the safety of workers is to use a safer disposal technology."
Monday's incident happened as the incinerator's staff is changing over equipment to prepare the facility to begin processing VX nerve agent, a more toxic weapon than sarin. The Tooele plant, a forefather of the incinerator built near Anniston, completed the destruction of the sarin stockpile in March. The plant currently is not processing agent.
The employee, who was accompanied by a co-worker, was exposed to the vapor during routine maintenance operations on the agent purge line. This blows leftover agent from the line that carries liquid agent into the furnace.
At 8:23 a.m., as the workers opened the purge line, an alarm system in the room sounded, signaling the presence of agent in the air.
"There was residual agent in there they weren't aware of," said Chuck Sprague, public affairs officer at the Tooele incinerator.
Both employees, who were wearing coveralls with a charcoal respirator, stopped work and put on their gas masks. They left the room and, with two other workers who had been observing from an adjacent room, went to the clinic.
There, decontamination procedures that began shortly after the alarm sounded were continued, and the workers' blood was checked. The tests determined that the cholinesterase level in the blood of one of the workers was low, which is the Army's definition of contamination. The worker also had pinpointed pupils, a symptom of exposure.
After a period of observation, the employee was put on non-toxic duties.
An official at the Anniston incinerator, which is expected to begin burning sarin-filled rockets later this year, said management and staff would learn from the incident.
"We are training our people to work very, very safely so we can consequently destroy the weapons very, very safely," said Mike Abrams. "I'd like to say we'll learn as much as we can from Tooele to give ourselves the opportunity to repeat the same scenario here."
Abrams added that Bob Love, the site project manager for Westinghouse, will take part in one of the investigations.
