Drug Injectors Found Among Medical Waste on Beaches

Three devices used to inject a potentially harmful drug that can induce rapid heartbeat, fever and delirium washed up on San Diego beaches last week amid other medical waste, officials said Monday.

The injectors, which look like crayons, are placed against the skin and release a needle that injects the drug, atropine--an antidote for nerve gas. The injectors are routinely supplied to all Navy ships as protection against a nerve gas attack, said Navy spokesman Cmdr. Doug Schamp.

Two of the three devices were found at Pacific Beach and Mission Beach, along with 100 bottles of penicillin and several hundred strips of anti-malarial pills, said Linda Miller, spokeswoman for the San Diego County district attorney’s office, which is a member of the Hazardous Waste Task Force. It is unknown where the third injector was found, she said.

The 3-inch-long, 1/2-inch wide cylindrical injectors are sealed in plastic bags, but could easily penetrate the plastic, officials warn.

“All you have to do is slap it against your skin and it automatically injects--it’s pretty easy to use,” said Miller. Parents should warn their children to not touch any object on the beach that looks “unusual,” she advised.

Both children and adults should be careful walking and playing at the beach, she said. If injected, a person should immediately contact a doctor.

An investigation is under way to track the source of the injectors. Officials are uncertain whether all have been recovered.

“How do we know what’s out there? Maybe there’s a whole bucketful or maybe it’s just these three,” Miller said.

The Navy issues three injectors in a kit for military personnel aboard ships, said Schamp. Each injector contains a dose of 2 milligrams. During a bombardment of nerve gas, individuals are supposed to inject themselves with the three dispensers, allowing the drug to bond to the body’s nerve endings to protect them against the gas.

“We’re fairly convinced that the ones that were found are of military origin,” Schamp said. “And we’re pretty concerned. We want to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But we also don’t think it should cause hysteria.”

Atropine, first discovered in the early 1830s, can accelerate the heart beat, cause fever, dry mouth, blurry vision, and hot, dry and sometimes flushed skin. Weakness and giddiness can occur, as well as shallow breathing and delirium.

“I don’t believe the 2-milligram dose would be life-threatening to a healthy child or adult,” said Anthony Manoguerra, director of the San Diego Regional Poison Center at UC San Diego Medical Center. “It would make someone sick--maybe requiring 24 hours in a hospital.”

For adults or children with heart conditions, the drug poses a special hazard and could induce a heart attack, Manoguerra cautions. In addition, the effects on children would be more pronounced, he said.

“It’s a disgrace that this was allowed to happen,” said Jim Jacobson, director of the Alliance for Survival, an environmental group. “It’s got to be tracked down; we have to find out who the guilty party is and prosecute them.”

The Navy has strict rules governing the disposal of medical waste, Schamp said. Injectors, like the ones found, are supposed to be activated before they are discarded. The contents--the drugs--are usually dumped in the sewage system and the injector is deposited in a container, according to regulations.

The injectors found last week contained a drug that had expired last June, but it is not known whether the medication would have lost its effectiveness, said Schamp. The medical officer of each ship is supposed to make sure supplies aboard a vessel are up to date and have not expired, he said.

“Obviously, we are not happy with this because there are measures to preclude this very thing from happening,” Schamp said. Times staff writer Yolanda Rodriguez contributed to this story.