Mystery Vials Identified : Chemicals Are Antiseptics Used to Defend Against Germ Warfare and Are Not Dangerous Unless They Are Ingested, Officials Say

The mysterious vials that washed up on 30 miles of Orange County beaches the past 2 days were identified Tuesday as equipment used by the military as defense against chemical and biological warfare.

Public health officials said the chemicals in the vials are antiseptics and not dangerous unless taken internally.

During a press conference in Santa Ana, officials said they have been unable to determine who dumped the cache of about 70 anti-chemical and anti-biological warfare items into the Pacific Ocean. “Circumstantially it looked like it was dumped by the military,” said John J. Hills, program manager for the Orange County environmental health waste management section.

In San Diego County Too

Such debris has been washing ashore in San Diego County as well, and one item found Tuesday--a roll of camouflage-colored gauze bandages--was traced to a stock of hospital supplies purchased in 1984 by the Department of Defense, San Diego County officials said. Hills said Navy officials have been contacted about the debris and pledged to cooperate in investigating the matter.

The Orange County “mystery vials” washed ashore on wind waves Monday morning following a night of rainstorms. About 60 vials were found Monday, Hills said, and about 10 more washed up on Tuesday.

Environmental experts, puzzled by the unusual look of some of the vials, initially feared they might be explosive.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department determined Tuesday that the vials would not explode, and other samples were then taken to the Public Health Laboratory in Santa Ana for analysis.

In the meantime, a chemical manufacturer heard about the vials in a news broadcast and contacted Orange County health officials.

For Military Use

“From the manufacturer it was learned that the vials were produced for military use in decontaminating persons exposed to chemical and biological agents during chemical and/or biological warfare,” Hills said. “The containers contain chemicals used as antiseptics.”

Antiseptics are germ-killing substances. Biological warfare--a form of military fighting most nations have disavowed--involves spreading lethal germs.

“This situation differs from the medical dumping back East last summer in that these items are chemicals, not biological waste,” Hills said.

During the press conference, Hills showed how a typical container found on the beaches could be broken, the chemicals mixed into a solution and the solution sprayed onto a person’s skin as a defense during germ warfare.

A conference table displayed an array of vials, containers and assorted medical supplies found on the beaches. Some of the medical supplies included throat swabs, skin cleaners and unopened bottles of antibiotics. There was also one used syringe.

In Ocean a Brief Time

But the unusual vials used for protection against chemical-biological warfare constituted most of the display.

Hills declined to speculate about whether all the debris came from one dumping at sea. He said the vials apparently had been in the ocean a brief time. Holding a barnacle-encrusted plastic bottle aloft, Hills said, “If something has been in the ocean for 2 weeks or more, it gets barnacles on it, such as these.”

The environmental health official said the investigation is continuing, and he said the military is being involved in the probe.

“We have contacted the commander of the U.S. Naval Shipyard at Long Beach, and he has indicated he will assist us in identifying the contents of the vials and in determining the possible source,” Hills said.

“If the responsible party is identified in the course of our continuing investigation and it is determined that disposal laws have been broken, appropriate enforcement action will be taken.”

Hills said that a state law prohibits dumping at sea and provides for a fine of up to $25,000 a day.

A Navy spokesman on Tuesday said a team of Navy personnel from San Diego will come to Orange County this week to inspect the vials and other debris found on the beaches Monday and Tuesday.

“That team will include a medical person familiar with military supplies aboard a ship and a supply person who knows items kept in supply,” said Chief Craig Huebler, a San Diego-based public information spokesman for the Navy.

Huebler said a Navy team had already inspected medical debris that was washed up in San Diego and found nothing that conclusively showed that the items were from a Navy ship.

He said the vials washed ashore in Orange County were “unusual” and might be military. He said no conclusion would be reached until the Navy finishes its on-site investigation later this week.

Vial of Blood

In San Diego County, the medical waste that washed ashore Tuesday is the latest in a string of incidents that began Oct. 29, when beach-goers found a vial of blood, a syringe with attached needles and a patient’s identification wristband near Black’s Beach. The next day, other items of medical waste washed up at La Jolla Shores.

Subsequent discoveries of the waste have been concentrated along the La Jolla shoreline, but on Tuesday the materials were found up and down the county coastline.

Gary Stephany, director of San Diego County’s Department of Health Services, said his department traced the camouflage bandages to a New York manufacturer.

“We called the man in New York, and he told us the lot number we gave him were for bandages that were manufactured in 1984 and sold to the Defense Department,” he said.

“They were distributed across the United States to the regional centers. I don’t think we can trace it any further than that.”

Stephany said that because bandages and a bottle of copier lubricant also washed ashore, health officials believe that the medical wastes originated from a land-based hospital or research laboratory that has contracts or connections with the military. UC San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Veterans Administration hospital and military clinics could all be sources, he said.

Billiter reported from Orange County and Frammolino from San Diego.