A toxic leak forced the evacuation of a factory in St. Jean sur Richelieu Tuesday night.

The workplace accident happened at the Thomas & Betts company at 100 Longtin St. around 11:30 p.m.

Alarms went off as soon as the hydrogen cyanide was released, and 100 people inside the building went outside without any injuries.

A Hazardous Materials crew was quick to ventilate the building, and make sure no pockets of the gas remained.

Hydrogen cyanide is normally a liquid, but boils at slightly above room temperature. It is commonly used in electroplating.

By 5 a.m. the hazmat team had given the all clear and people were allowed to return inside.

SAN BERNARDINO -- Firefighters came to a San Bernardino business Wednesday after someone found two containers, including one with a cyanide label, in a cabinet.
Neither of the bottles spilled, but hazardous materials personnel conducted tests on the chemicals to determine how to handle them.

A man looking through items on the property in the 600 block of West 40th Street called the San Bernardino Fire Department at 10:02 a.m. after finding a bottle labeled cyanide and another with a skull-and-crossbones label, said fire Division Chief Eric Esquivel.

Esquivel said the chemicals were found in an auto repair business that is in the process of being sold

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A potassium cyanide leak forced an evacuation in the South Valley Saturday morning.

It happened in Visalia at the household hazardous waste collection site on Cain near Goshen just after 10:30 a.m. Saturday. The Visalia Fire Department says the leak happened while workers were preparing a container for packing.

The fire department responded with its hazmat team, and the area was evacuated for several hours while the leak was contained.

No one was injured, and the evacuation was lifted before 1:30 p.m. this afternoon.

The following story is true...only some details have been left out to protect the embarrassed.
A man saw smoke coming from an ashtray early today. That's not unusual by itself but there seemed to be more smoke than usual. The man, now alarmed, looked at the warning printed on his pack of cigarettes. There in black and white under toxic ingredients it listed Hydrogen Cyanide. EMS and Fire were alerted and responded. The mere mention of Hydrogen Cyanide raised concern and a HAZMAT unit was added to the call. When the smoke cleared from the ashtray, the call was rapidly downgraded. All's well that ends well.

A Brevard County hazardous materials team and firefighters were alerted about 10 a.m. today after a 22-year-old man using a chemical set called to report concern about a possible hydrogen cyanide leak at a home on the 3700 block of Erie Street in Cocoa.

“(The man called) dispatchers saying that he was trying to extract chlorophyll from spinach and was concerned because he had read that it could turn into cyanide. He had read somewhere that spinach contained cyanide,” said Lt. Jeff Taylor, spokesman for Brevard County Fire-Rescue.

The man was apparently using a chemical set to carry out an unidentified experiment, officials reported.

Cyanide, often described as having a bitter-almond smell, is a lethal, fast-acting poison that can be found in a number of products, from food to plant like spinach.

“We did send a truck out but it turned out to be nothing. There was no leak,” Taylor said.

The parking lot behind White Lake Township Hall, and near the police department entrace was closed Friday while White Lake Police and Fire handled a minor hazmat situation.

Lt. Don Nankervis said a man was cleaning out a recently deceased relatives home in Southfield when he found a jar of liquid cyanide.

"He drove the jar to us here to see if we could dispose of it," Nankervis said.

Because of nature of the substance, the fire deparmtment called on their hazmat resources to assess the substance and ensure it wasn't hazardous.

After removing the jar from the vehicle in the parking lot, firefighters properly sealed the container and recommended a place that could properly dispose of the cyanide.

Both police and fire said anytime you find a hazardous material contact emergency service for instructions on how to dispose of the material. Do not keep it in your car.

TULSA - Tulsa HAZMAT crews are cleaning up a chemical spill at a warehouse near downtown, officials say.

A mixture of silver cyanide and sulfuric acid was spilled at a building near 12th and South Frankfort.

An employee inhaled the mixture and was treated by EMSA. Officials say the mixture can also be absorbed though the skin.

Silver cyanide is used in silver-plating.

Hundreds of people were evacuated after a chemical leak at a Whitstable factory today.

The Amphenol site on the Thanet Way was shut off after the release of a hazardous gas in one of the buildings on the plot.

Firefighters said the chemicals mixed to form the potentially deadly substance hydrogen cyandide.

Two police cars, three fire engines and a special incident team raced to the scene at 11am after the alarm was raised.

The leak was contained within the manufacturer’s plating shop while about 200 staff waited within the fenced-off site.

Concerns of cyanide exposure forced fire officials to temporarily block access to the Peter Lougheed Centre hospital Saturday night.

Police said a man moseyed in just after 7 p.m. carrying a container he claimed was filled with cyanide — a chemical compound used for various applications, but more commonly known as an effective killing agent.

“He just wanted to know where to put it, he didn’t know what to do with it,” said Insp. Jim Rorison.

The Calgary Fire Department dispatched a hazardous materials team that partially blocked entry to the hospital while they investigated.

A chemical company has been sentenced after a worker suffered toxic burns to his arms and chest at an Ellesmere Port factory.

The employee at Abacus Chemical Ltd was mixing two chemicals together on 7 May 2009 when they exploded, causing him to be drenched in a hot, toxic chemical solution.

The company was prosecuted in a joint case brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Environment Agency following the incident at its plant on Oil Sites Road in Ellesmere Port.

Chester Magistrates' Court, sitting in Knutsford, heard that the company had mixed 22 kilograms of sodium cyanide pellets with hydrogen peroxide to make them less toxic. By taking this action, Abacus avoided having to pay a licensed hazardous waste company to dispose of the pellets at a cost of less than £300.

A man at a Manorhaven, N.Y., jewelry store may have been exposed to excessive amounts of cyanide March 1, the Nassau County Fire Marshal tells JCK.

Following limited evacuation, Nassau County Fire Marshal spokesperson Vincent McManus says hazardous materials crews discovered open products containing cyanide at the store. 

“They were able to reseal the open containers,” he says. “As a precaution they treated the whole scene.”

The store owner—who had called 911 himself after feeling faint—was transported to St. Francis Hospital around 3:40 a.m. Initial tests detected cyanide in the man’s system. His condition was not immediately known.

McManus says no one else was exposed to the chemical and the hazmat team determined the area was safe.

Cyanide is commonly used in the jewelry industry—as an ingredient in cleaning solutions, for example—but McManus says it is rare for someone to become ill from exposure.

A dangerous chemical found stored in the inner-city office of Public Health South prompted a full-scale hazardous material operation at the Invercargill Fire Service yesterday.

The incident has raised questions about how a canister of calcium cyanide, labelled "Poison Cyanogas", could sit undetected in the Spey St offices of Public Health South for 18 months.

Although one of Public Health South's roles was to offer advice on hazardous substances, the canister was simply placed in storage on the premises.

Public Health South Dunedin-based general manager Pip Stewart said the canister was dropped into the Invercargill office some time in 2009 and put into a storeroom.

It was discovered last year during an audit but staff put it back into the storeroom while they decided what to do with it.

"I don't think we would normally store anything like that," Ms Stewart said.

Firefighters using breathing apparatus and specialist gas-tight chemical suits have tackled a cyanide leak in north Devon.

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said about 200 litres of potassium cyanide leaked into an overflow tank at Tyco Electronics at East The Water, near Bideford.

The spill was contained within the factory and no-one was injured.

The chemical is normally stored on site to strip metal.

A man has been taken to hospital after suffering chemical poisoning at an industrial site in Hampshire.

Firefighters were called to a "hazardous material incident" in Daneshill, Basingstoke.

A 46-year-old man suffered cadmium cyanide poisoning, a Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said.

They said no action was required by fire crews as there was no external leak. The Health and Safety Executive has been informed.

ELLIOT, Pa. -- Emergency responders blocked off Bucyrus Street in Elliot Tuesday morning after a cleaning crews found a barrel of potassium cyanide inside a home.
Neighbors were told to stay indoors while hazardous materials crews investigated the situation.
Police said no one was living at the home for about a month.
Firefighters said a 100 gallon barrel was half-full of the highly toxic substance. HAZMAT crews were able to safely take control of the substance and said it was never exposed to anyone.
Crews said the substance could have been used to clean concrete by the people who lived there before. Potassium Cyanide can also be used in the mining process and to clean jewelry.
Police are now investigating. No injuries were reported.

AURORA, Colo. -- Nine people, including eight emergency responders, were rushed to the hospital Thursday morning after they were exposed to potassium cyanide.
A man made a cryptic, vague 911 call just before 9 a.m. saying he had cyanide in a glass of water. He did not give his identity, his location, nor his intention with the cyanide, said Aurora fire Capt. Allen Robnett.
However, using his cell phone number, officers were able to track down his name and learn that there was an active warrant for his arrest. The warrant had his last known address -- the Skyview RV Park, Unit 57, at 16051 E. Colfax Avenue near Laredo Street.

Two police officers went to the trailer park and talked to the man, who apparently drank some cyanide and spilled the rest as police tried to confiscate it, according to doctors at University Hospital.
Robnett added Hazmat investigators don't know how much cyanide was exposed.
At first, firefighters transported the man and two police officers to the hospital. But while decontaminating the RV, the hazardous materials team transported four additional officers and two medics as a precaution, Robnett said.
However, none of the first responders showed any symptoms, Robnett said.
University Hospital said it evaluated nine people -- and admitted two to the hospital. The man was admitted to the intensive care unit in fair condition, and an officer was admitted for observation, said Erika Matich, a spokeswoman with the University of Colorado Hospital.
The other seven people were evaluated, treated and released, Matich said.