A plastics fire in Indiana spewed various toxic chemicals into the air, including hydrogen cyanide and benzene, according to test results from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Officials said Friday that air monitors detected hydrogen cyanide, benzene, chlorine, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds in the ground-level smoke.
“We detected some new contaminants right at the incident command post which is, again, at the center of the evacuation zone,” Jason Sewell, the EPA’s on-scene coordinator, said at a news conference in Richmond, Indiana.
“The two new contaminants we detected were hydrogen cyanide and benzene. We had not detected those before last night. The fire department jumped on extinguishing the hot spot and that abated,” he said.
The EPA said it notified the Richmond Fire Department that it had detected the two dangerous compounds out of concern for firefighters’ safety.
The blaze was first reported on Tuesday afternoon, and soon after, the Wayne County Emergency Management Agency told residents within half a mile to evacuate. That order is still in place.
The warehouse where the fire started contained large amounts of shredded and bulk recycled plastic, and it sent ominous black smoke over Richmond and surrounding towns in eastern Indiana and western Ohio. Local and federal officials warned area residents on Wednesday that smoke from burning plastic could contain cancer-causing toxins.
Hydrogen cyanide, a highly toxic gas, can be fatal depending on the dose and length of exposure.
Benzene is known to cause cancers such as leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in some people with long-term exposure. The World Health Organization has said there’s no safe level of benzene exposure when it comes to cancer risk.
“What we don’t know is the levels and where did they measure the them?” said Dr. Arthur Frank, an environmental and occupational health professor at Drexel University.
Christine Stinson, executive director…
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