Local News in Brief : Workers Flee Chemical
About 200 County-USC Medical Center employees were evacuated Friday morning when a toxic chemical with a “strong, pungent odor” was discovered in a trash bin, hospital Administrator Ted Holland said.
No patients were moved while city firefighters and a hazardous materials squad were called in at 10:47 a.m. to dispose of the chemical, urea cyanide, which was in a glass laboratory container, he said.
There were no injuries during the two-hour evacuation of workers in the basement and first floor of the Los Angeles hospital, but some employees complained of headaches, nausea and dizziness, city Fire Department spokesman Greg Acevedo said.
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