Minute amounts of mustard blister agent vapor were discovered yesterday within a storage structure at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon, the Tri-City, Wash., Herald reported (see GSN, Dec. 16, 2009).
A passive filtration system prevented the vapor from escaping the igloo, which is now being enhanced with an active system.
An effort has begun to locate and fix the leaking mustard container.
Mustard storage containers are being thawed out to ready them for incineration. This can result in vapor leakage as the chemical warfare agent moves out of a gelled state (see GSN, Jan. 27; Tri-City Herald, Jan. 27).