Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for September 18, 2008 GIANT SILICA PACKS?

Big doin's in Mound City!

Hazmat Team Responds after White, Powdery Substance Found in Warehouse Shipment

By: Christy Hendricks

MOUND CITY, Ill. - A typical day on the job turned into a day filled with law enforcement from the federal, state, and local level after workers at a warehouse in Mound City found an unknown substance in a shipment.

About 18 people were quarantined after workers for Crain Enterprises began unloading a shipment from China Wednesday around 9 a.m.

According to Ken Kerley with Pulaski County Emergency Management Agency, workers started to unload the shipment when they found numerous bags of a white, powdery substance. They called the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department. Officers did tests with their drugs kits and could not identify the substance. The sheriff's department then called in a Hazmat team from Marion to come down.

Workers and law enforcement who had possible exposure to the flour-like chemical were placed on a precautionary quarantine.

The substance did get on some of the Crain Enterprise workers and they say it has a metallic taste.

The Madas Hazmat team from Marion, Herrin and Murphysboro tested the substance but have not conclusively determined what it is. Tests show the material may be some type of carbonate, but crews do not have a strong enough reading so samples will be sent to Springfield, Illinois for further analysis.

The company from China where the substance came from says the material is a moisture absorbing chemical made up of lime, but on-site tests have not confirmed that.

The people who were quarantined were able to leave and go home. The had the option to be decontaminated to neutralize the chemical.

The substance is not considered harmful to the public or those who were quarantined.

The truck holding the chemical was quarantined for the night.

The FBI, secretary of state's office, bomb squad, Homeland Security, terrorism task force, as well as local authorities responded to the scene.