By LESTER CHANG
Nineteen employees were exposed to a hazardous material while recycling goods at the Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer Station on April 14.
The employees were exposed to Ticlopidine hydrochloride, a substance used in pharmacological manufacturing, and reported symptoms that included headaches, rashes, nausea and minor respiratory discomfort.
Five employees were treated at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, and three were treated at O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, according to Jack Mason, district manager for Western Waste, which manages the facility.
"All are fine," he said. The other 11 employees refused treatment.
All 19 employees washed down at the facility, located at 301 Carl Road, and were decontaminated, Mason said.
Another 15 employees might have been exposed and, as a precaution, were decontaminated in the same way, Mason said.
The employees were exposed to powder--kept in plastic liners found in cardboard drums--sometime after 11 a.m., said Karen Miller, an administrative manager with the city's Public Safety Fire Division, which investigated the incident.
Inspectors with the Public Safety Hazardous Materials Division are trying to determine the origin of the powder, which is used to treat people who have had strokes.
The powder was cleaned up and removed on the day of the incident.
The SMART station, opened in 1993, serves Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and Mountain View, and among items, it recycles cardboard and newspapers.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 23, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.