U.N. Substance Was Nontoxic
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UNITED NATIONS – A U.N. official said today that a substance found at a U.N. office last week suspected of being a chemical agent appears to be a nontoxic solvent.
The material was found at a U.N. office in midtown Manhattan in inventory files with a label that indicated it could be phosgene, a chemical substance used in World War I weapons. It had been in the files for 11 years and was only identified when officials checked the inventory number against the many records in their vast archives.
U.N. and American officials said after the discovery the material posed no threat to anyone’s health or safety. However, it was removed by a team of hazardous materials experts from the FBI and New York City police and taken to a laboratory for testing.
The U.N. official said today that preliminary results indicate the substance was a nontoxic solvent, not the chemical agent phosgene.
“If it turns out to be something that was mislabeled, we’ll need to find out why it was mislabeled,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
