Army will test
contents of vials

An assessment team will
try to determine the
chemicals’ origins

The Army will spend the weekend testing 106 glass vials containing potentially hazardous liquids recovered in the past two days from a Wilhelmina Rise home and Sand Island, but the results will not be known until early next week.

Mary Markovinovic, Fort Shafter spokeswoman, said each vial will be examined by a laser, and none of them will be opened.

After the testing over the weekend, the results will be sent electronically to an assessment review board in Maryland before the results are made public, she said.

A combined federal, state and county hazardous-materials team recovered 74 sealed vials containing a yellowish substance Thursday from a Paula Drive home whose deceased owner was a chemical officer in World War II. Four empty containers also were recovered. All 78 vials were taken to Wheeler Army Air Field in Wahiawa.

Kelly McArthur, who served as caregiver for the couple that used to live at 1611-A Paula Drive, also turned over one of the vials she discovered under the house to the University of Hawaii for testing and another one to the Health Department on Monday.

Thirty other glass vials were picked up by the Army from a Sand Island company after a person saw Thursday TV reports on the Paula Drive recovery and called the Health Department.

Markovinovic said the tests will be conducted by an assessment team from the Army's 22nd Chemical Battalion, which arrived Thursday from Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

She said the Army assessment team was summoned since it is responsible to test and identify unknown chemical substances believed to have been created by the military. The Army also will be responsible for destroying the substances once the tests have been completed.

Army chemical experts will use technology developed by the Army's Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Project.

The team will use the Raman Spectrometer, which allows the assessment team to test the vials for any type of chemical agent without opening them, Markovinovic said.

The spectrometer uses a laser beam to excite molecules inside the vials, she said, producing a chemical signature. The system analyzes the signature using a computer database to correctly identify any potential chemicals.

The tests will determine if the vials were once a part of a chemical agent identification set, as some have suspected. She said such vials contain a variety of substances from water to industrial agents to chemical agents.

Markovinovic said these chemical sets contained small glass ampoules, vials or bottles of chemicals packed in metal shipping containers or wooden boxes and were used to train soldiers in the safe handling, identification and decontamination of chemical warfare agents.

About 110,000 of these sets were produced between 1928 and 1969 and used by all military services at facilities around the United States. They were intended as disposable training aids, so the items were not inventoried and documented as chemical weapons, the Army said.

The Army said nearly 22,000 of these chemical test kits were destroyed in the early 1980s. However, since all them have not been accounted for, Markovinovic said, "unexpected chemical discoveries continue."

She warned: "Exposure to the various chemical agents found within identification sets can cause serious injury. Exposure symptoms could include coughing, vomiting, nausea, irritation, swelling, itching, redness and skin blisters. Chemical agent exposure can also cause acute pain and tightness in the chest. Industrial chemicals, while not chemical agents, can also cause injury."

That means anyone who believes they may have found these vials should move away from the items or evacuate the immediate area and seek medical attention if necessary.

The Army asks the public to notify police by calling 911 or the state Department of Health at 586-4249 if they know the locations of other vials.

Lt. Col. Franz Amann, commander of the 22nd Chemical Battalion, said: "The vials are in a safe and secure area. Since the tests are non-intrusive, they pose no threat to the environment or the public."