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http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/05/25/vancouver_bus040525

Vancouver bus quarantined after mystery substance found
Last Updated Tue, 25 May 2004 23:39:01
VANCOUVER - As many as 19 people were quarantined Tuesday after a suspicious substance was discovered on a Vancouver bus.

A hazardous materials team cordoned off the transit bus and removed the substance. The express bus had arrived at Vancouver's Waterfront Centre from Richmond.

Vancouver police secure the area around the bus.

Police say the substance, which consisted of some kind of brown pellets, made the driver and two other passengers sick.

Ten of the people were checked out and allowed to go. The other nine are being decontaminated on site, going through a series of showers and then taken to hospital for observation until emergency staff are satisfied they're no longer at risk.

Officials have not yet positively identified the substance, but police believe it may be phosphine.

Phosphine is a colourless, flammable and explosive gas used in semiconductor and plastics industries to make a flame retardant and a pesticide in stored grain.

Early exposure symptoms include nausea and vomiting, while high levels of exposure can cause weakness, bronchitis, convulsions and death.