By Evan Lips
Lowell Sun
DRACUT, Mass. — Three workers at a trucking company off Route 113 near the Methuen line were hospitalized Tuesday after they noticed a strange smell inside a trucking container loaded with a hazardous material.
According to Dracut police Sgt. Gregg Byam, the men were decontaminated at the scene and then transported to Saints Medical Center in Lowell to be treated for “potential exposure” to a hazardous material.
Deputy Fire Chief Mike Ralls said all three men had “very slight symptoms,” so they were decontaminated and taken to Saints.
Ralls said crews initially feared that either phenyl mercaptan or chromium trioxide, both of which are toxic, had leaked.
Police responded to the incident, which occurred at the Con-way Freight terminal inside an industrial park on Commercial Drive, at approximately 9:50 a.m. The Route 113 entrance to Commercial Drive was still closed as of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The incident at the trucking terminal, which straddles the Methuen line, also drew a mobile-command unit from Methuen, emergency crews from North Reading, the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Emergency Response team and the state Department of Fire Service’s technical-operations truck. Byam said Con-way Freight was evacuated at around 10 a.m.
“The two chemicals we were worried about were not compromised,” said Deputy Ralls.
Crews determined that neither phenyl mercaptan nor chromium trioxide had spilled, and that the only substance that spilled in the trailer was fumatic acid, which is not hazardous.
“It isn’t really a hazard,” Ralls said. “It can be cleaned up by anyone.”
Ralls said all three men who were taken to Saints Medical Center were released.
Staff Writer Robert Mills contributed to this report.
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