State News

Investigators identify gas in apartment

| Wednesday, October 05, 2005

SALEM (AP) — A gas detected in an apartment building where four people got sick has been identified as phosphine, authorities said Tuesday.

Labs in South Dakota and Minnesota were among those that tested a substance that was found at the Salem Apartments after residents were evacuated.

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"Both of them (labs) came up with phosphine and aluminum phosphide," Brad Stiefvater, McCook County emergency management director, said.

Aluminum phosphide reacts with moisture to form phosphine gas.

Stiefvater said the source had been removed from the apartment building.

Four residents of the Salem Apartments got sick Friday after a strong odor was detected. One of the residents, Irene L. Shock, 81, died Saturday at a Sioux Falls hospital.

Her husband, Gideon, was transferred from Sioux Valley Hospital to a nursing home in good condition Monday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The others who became sick were treated and released Friday. They are Alberta Townsend, her aunt, Felice Lampe, 80, and Lyle Kolbeck, 73.

Officials plan to test blood from the three survivors exposed to the chemicals to gather more information in the investigation.

Phosphine is used in the plastics industries and as a pesticide in stored grain, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Phosphine is used in the plastics industries and as a pesticide in stored grain, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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