Tim Collins /B次元官网网址 Staff

When 1-800-GOT-JUNK? arrived Monday morning at a residential property on Seaboard Crescent in Central Saanich they assumed it would be a simple matter of picking up some of the detritus that most homes tend to accumulate and eventually purge as the years go by.

This call, however, was destined to be different.

The two workers had been tasked with removing a collection of junk from an outbuilding; material that had ostensibly been left behind by a previous owner, but in amongst old VCR tapes and assorted rubbish was a bag containing a coffee can which, when handled by the crew came open and released a white powder.

The reaction was an immediate eye irritation and difficulty in breathing and, recognizing that they had been exposed to something unusual, the workers contacted emergency services. The police and fire department responded as did the the BC Hazmat Management Ltd. (a private contractor specializing in hazardous material cleanup).

The first order of business involved caring for the two workers who needed to remove clothing and, after a decontamination process, donned coveralls provided by the responders. They were transported to hospital where they were treated and released.

By that time, the material had been removed and tested and found to a compound called chlorobenzalmalonitile, a component of CS gas, or tear gas.

Given that the material had been abandoned years earlier by an unidentified owner (who sources have tied to a career in military or law enforcement), and due to the understanding that the current owner had no knowledge of what was in the coffee can, no charges were laid and no further action is planned by the police.

Still, it has given Deputy Chief Derren Lench of the Central Saanich police pause.

B次元官网网址淵ou do wonder sometimes why someone would keep something like that. Items like that can certainly be dangerous and I just think that, sometimes, people keep things without considering the consequences,B次元官网网址� he said.

For Troy Edroff, the operations manager for 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, the situation is unfortunate, but not all together surprising.

B次元官网网址淚t doesnB次元官网网址檛 happen often, but maybe once a year or so we come across something very strange and have to call in the proper authorities to deal with something our crews are called to remove,B次元官网网址� he said.

B次元官网网址漁f course weB次元官网网址檙e not going to deal with poisons or explosive items or hazardous chemicals. Those things arenB次元官网网址檛 normal junk and have to be removed by specialists. And certainly, if you have something like that, itB次元官网网址檚 important that you identify the material and ask about it before just putting it on the pile to be removed,B次元官网网址� said Edroff.

B次元官网网址淚n this case, the homeowner just didnB次元官网网址檛 know what he had.B次元官网网址�