Omaha Traffic Accident Takes Toxic Turn

A 25-year-old man involved in a traffic accident Monday near 40th and Leavenworth Streets ingested a toxic chemical, leading to a hazardous materials cleanup that shut down the area for more than five hours. Click To Enlarge An investigator in protective gear checks out one of the cars involved in an accident on Leavenworth Street Monday.

A three-block stretch of Leavenworth Street was closed to traffic as members of the Omaha-based joint terrorism task force secured the cars and cleaned the area.

Hospital and fire officials identified the chemical as cyanuric chloride, which is found in herbicides.

Cyanuric chloride is an acid that contains some cyanide material, said Dr. Steven Seifert, medical director of the Nebraska Regional Poison Center.

Casual contact with the chemical probably would not be a problem, Seifert said, but ingestion can cause serious illness.

The man who swallowed the substance, Sivaprakash Natarajan, 25, of Manhattan, Kan., was listed in serious condition Monday at the Nebraska Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Investigators contacted police at Kansas State University, where school officials said Natarajan studied apparel and textiles at the graduate level from August 2001 to May 2004.

Kansas State Police Capt. Robert Mellgren said investigators told him that Natarajan said he got the substance he ingested from a campus laboratory.

"We have all kinds of chemistry labs that will have different chemicals in all of them," he said.

Monday's events unfolded about 9:45 a.m. with the two-car accident near 40th and Leavenworth Streets.

Natarajan apparently ingested the substance before police officers arrived, said Special Agent Jeff Tarpinian, an FBI spokesman.

Officers found a container with a discolored white substance in Natarajan's maroon car, he said. Natarajan told investigators what the substance was.

Authorities don't believe the incident was connected to terrorist or criminal acts, Tarpinian said.

"I was inside all morning, and all the sudden everything lit up," said Wally Hein, owner of the Pet O'Mine shop at 4014 Leavenworth St.

Ambulances and firetrucks crowded the street shortly after the accident. When Hein went outside, he said, he saw rescuers hosing down a man with water.

Firefighters and hazardous-materials workers wearing full suits and masks remained at the scene well into the afternoon. Hazmat workers were hosed down before peeling off their suits. The workers even doused a police cruiser that responded to the accident.

The three others taken to the hospital - a firefighter, a police officer and the driver of the car Natarajan collided with - were observed for signs of sickness and then released, Tarpinian said.

Omaha Fire Battalion Chief Rob Prucha said the substance Natarajan swallowed contained traces of "several different products."

Some are "very abundant and not too difficult to get ahold of," Prucha said. He declined to elaborate.

Motor vehicle registration records show that a Florida car-rental company owns the car Natarajan was driving Monday.

Tarpinian said investigators had not interviewed Natarajan at length, but they knew where he had been the past few days.

"But what brought him from Kansas or Manhattan to Omaha?" Tarpinian said. "We don't know that."

CYANURIC CHLORIDE
PRODUCT IDENTIFICATION
CAS NO.	108-77-0
EINECS NO.	203-614-9
FORMULA	C₃Cl₃N₃
MOL WT.	184.41
HS CODE	2933.69
TOXICITY	Oral rat LD50: 930 mg/kg
SYNONYMS	2,4,6-Trichlorotriazine; 2,4,6-Trichloro-1,3,5-Triazine;
Cyanurchlorid(German); Chlorure de cyanuryle(French); Cloruro di cianurile (Italian); 2,4,6-Trichloro-1,3,5-Triazine; Tricyanogen Chloride; Sym-Trichlorotriazine; Kyanurchlorid (Czech); Cyanuryl chloride; Trichlorocyanidine; s-Triazine trichloride; 2,4,6-Trichloro-s-triazine;
DERIVATION	Hydrogen cyanide Hydrocyanic acid (74-90-8)
CLASSIFICATION
PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL STATE	clear crystals with pungent odor
MELTING POINT	145 - 147 C
BOILING POINT	192 C (Decomposes)
SPECIFIC GRAVITY	1.32
SOLUBILITY IN WATER	hydrolyzes
pH
VAPOR DENSITY	6.4
NFPA RATINGS	Health: 3; Flammability: 0; Reactivity: 1
AUTOIGNITION
REFRACTIVE INDEX
FLASH POINT
STABILITY	Stable under ordinary conditions
APPLICATIONS
Cyanic acid (also called fulminic acid) is an unstable (explosive), poisonous, volatile, clear liquid with the structure of H-O-C¡ÕN (the oxoacid formed from the pseudohalogen cyanide), which readily polymerizes to cyamelide and fulminic acid. Cyanuric acid (also called pyrolithic acid), white monoclinic crystal with the structure of [HOC(NCOH)₂N], is the compound of polymerized (trimer) cyanic acid (a symmetrical triazine containing three carbon and three nitrogen atoms in a ring structure); white monoclinic crystals; slightly soluble in water. Cyanic acid hydrolyses to ammonia and carbon dioxide in water. Its salts and esters are cyanates (or called fulminates). Esters of normal cyanic acid are not known. There is another isomeric cyanic acid with the structure of H-N=C=O, which is called isocyanic acid. Its salts and esters are isocyanates. Another trimer of cyanic acid is called isocyanuric acid (also known as fulminuric acid); soluble in water; melting at 138 C, and exploding at 145 C. Cyanates (or Isocyanates), cyanurates (or Isocyanurates) are used in the manufacturing pharmaceuticals, pesticides, textile softener and lubricants They are used in industrial disinfectants through the conversion to polycyclic compounds (such as hydantoins and imidazolons). They are used as plastic additives and as heat treatment salt formulations for metals. An amino compound with azo, phthalocyanine, or anthraquinone group is condensed in an aqueous medium with cyanuric chloride. Cyanuric chloride is used as an intermediate for manufacturing agrochemicals,dyestuffs, optical brighteners, tanning agents, softening agents and pharmaceuticals. Building block for plastics and additives.

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