Source of drug injector
still a mystery
State Department of Health officials say they need the military's help to determine how a drug injector surfaced in a Waipahu stream and injured a 12-year-old boy on Tuesday.
The state said it will investigate, but first needs the military to track where the injector for atropine, an anti-nerve gas drug, originated.
"At this point, we're kind of just waiting to see what the military can come up with on their end. There's really nothing else we can investigate," said Keith Kawaoka, environmental manager for the department.
Emergency cleanup crews for the state combed an Awanei Street stream on Tuesday after Trendon Amuzie accidentally stuck himself with a military atropine injector that his sister had found behind their house.
Soldiers inject themselves with atropine if they are poisoned with nerve gas. During the sweep, crews found several atropine injectors and more than 30 syringes and other medical waste.
Kawaoka said the military could use a serial number on the atropine injector to determine where the needle was produced. The needle that injured Trendon had an expiration date of March 1993.
But the army has not been formally asked to participate in the investigation, said Army Capt. Kathleen Turner. If the state needs the Army's help, Tripler Army Medical Center would track the origin of the injectors, she added.
Turner said tracing the injectors would be difficult because they are distributed to all the military services.
State officials oversaw yesterday's stream cleanup but said no more atropine injectors were found.
The city, which owns the stream, also worked at the site and cleared out four truckloads of debris and waste.
The city sends a cleanup crew to the stream twice a month, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa. The area often needs to be cleaned because many people illegally dump their trash there, she added.
The Waipahu Convenience Center, down the street on Waipahu Depot Road, is where trash can be disposed of legally. But sometimes people dump trash by the stream if the center is closed, Costa said.
"They're trashing someone else's neighborhoods because they're too lazy to take it home," she said.
