St. Louis has a HAZMAT event

[ensho]

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng

Area: USA, State of Missouri, , St. Louis

Description:

Officials in East St. Louis say two people are dead after being exposed to a hazardous material. However, none of the hospitals involved are reporting deaths from the incident. Eight to ten people are hospitalized around the St. Louis area after being exposed to some type of hazardous chemical or material. At least two people are very critical condition. St. Anthony’s Hospital in South County and DePaul Hospital in West County both shut down their emergency rooms when victims showed up with blue skin. FOX 2 has learned that victims have also been transported to Barnes Jewish Hospital, Saint Louis University Hospital and at least one more person was located at Gateway Regional Hospital in Granite City, Illinois. Illinois Emergency Management Agency crews are in East St. Louis at a business where they believe the hazardous material was located. Police, fire and EMS are at a business in the 600 block of 20th Street, near State. The East St. Louis City Manager says those who came in contact with the chemical were the people in danger and that city residents do not need to be worried and will not be evacuated. Officials believe the hospitalized individuals are employees of the business who were mixing the chemicals. They apparently dumped the chemicals in a dumpster. A police officer who arrived on the scene got within 75 feet of the chemical and had to be decontaminated. DePaul Hospital's emergency room is expected to be lockdown for at least three more hours. Some of the victims of the chemical accident were taken to Depaul Health Center and at one point the entire hospital was on lockdown. When this first happened everybody was scrambling, police, firefighters, emts, hospital staff patients. But by Saturday night the initial vicitms were being cared for and everyone was released, except for a small group of employees and patients who made contact with the original victims. As everything unfolded emotions were high. Invesitgators say three people walked into the emergency room after being exposed to a substance called nitro aniline. They had multiple symptoms, including severe dizziness, and of the three victims, two were in critical condition, the other stable. Initially, they and everyone in the emergency room were quarentined and only the E.R was shut down, but officials later decided to shut down the entire hospital as a precaution, which caused a real problem for one man who's wife was inside pregnant with twins. Jerondo Thompson says he left to get them something to eat around three o'clock, and by 3:30? "I came backand they won't let anybody in," said Thompson. As for the thought of missing his twin sons' birth? "Oh my god, I don't know. I mean I've been waiting on this for a long time so I just pray everything turns out good." After completing the decontamination process, hospital staff will then have to have the Emergency Department decontaminated as well. St. Anthony’s hospital is no longer on lockdown but officials are discouraging people from visiting.

Number of deaths: 2 persons
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don't visit the hospital

[valerief]

1. Looks like nitroaniline is used in making hair dye.

http://www.freshpatents.com/x1008405000psbc.php

Duty on it was suspended in 8/07
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-3280

http://www.answers.com/topic/ortho-nitroaniline
(¦ör·thō ′nī·trō′an·ə·lən)
(organic chemistry) NO2C6H4NH2 Orange-red crystals that melt at 69.7°C, soluble in ethanol; a toxic material; used to manufacture dyes.

Wonder how much toxic material is dumped in dumpsters by nitwits.

[hedgehog]

2. There should have been emergency showers and eye wash

stations right on the site where these chemicals were being handled. The fact that the men involved drove themselves to two different hospitals tells me that this company needs to be fined heavily and/or shut down.



As an example: a company that I worked for that has a process that might cause cyanide exposure has several kits on site AND has trained local response units and hospitals AND is in touch with local emergency services in case there is a cyanide exposure elsewhere since this company stocks the specific antidote.


Thinking about it - there is an emergency shower and an eye wash station in the chem lab at the local high school!