Jul 4, 2008

White substance found at Mills-Peninsula

Silica powder causes parking lot shutdown

By Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer

A mysterious substance found Thursday at Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame sparked a response from a hazardous materials team and the cordoning off of a small section of the hospital.

A hospital employee reported finding a white substance near the loading dock in the back of the hospital at 7:35 a.m. and a call went out to the fire department about 8:30 a.m., said hospital spokeswoman Angela Anderson. She could not explain why it took an hour to call the fire department.

The rear employee parking lot was blocked off during the incident and employees were warned to stay away from the area.

"It doesn't affect patient care areas," Anderson said Thursday morning. "It's in one small area. It is just a white substance. We don't know what it is."

At about noon, Central County Fire Chief Don Dornell said the substance appeared to be benign and was placed inside plastic containers. San Mateo County Environmental Health Department officials gave a sample of the substance to chemists for testing, Dornell said.

"It was a silica power, so it's no threat to human health," said Beverly Thames, a spokeswoman for the San Mateo County Health Department. "They don't know where it came from. It could have been used for lab equipment."

Hospital officials indicated they would look at surveillance camera footage of the area to determine how the substance got there, Thames said.

A hazardous materials call requires a lot of resources, said Dornell, noting that two fire engines, two battalion chiefs, a truck company, a representative from the county's Office of Emergency Services and about 18 firefighters responded.

The chemists will determine how the hospital should dispose of the substance. Because of the substance's benign nature, firefighters did not don their special hazardous materials suits to handle it, Dornell said. The firefighters who contained the substance wore their normal firefighting clothes and breathing apparatuses and used a shovel to scoop it into a container. They washed their hands afterward, however.

Hospital officials said managers were alerted about the situation via e-mail and they assured patients, their families and visitors that there was no danger from the substance and no need to evacuate, Anderson said.

"Here it was at a spot where you can deny entry (to the area) and it's outside, so there's no need to evacuate," Dornell said.



E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com.