Hazmat Scare Blocks Access to Ga. Hospital ER

Access to a Gwinnett County hospital emergency room was briefly interrupted overnight while fire crews dealt with a possible hazmat situation.

Shortly after midnight, a man came to Eastside Medical Center in Snellville "after opening a package a package at his home and being exposed to what he believed to be an unknown/hazardous substance," Gwinnett fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge said.

"Realizing the potential threat, and possible need for decontamination, hospital staff quickly isolated the man to the immediate area outside the emergency room entrance," Rutledge said in an e-mail.

The Gwinnett fire hazardous materials response team was dispatched to the scene, and performed an initial decontamination on the man and test of the substance inside the package.

"Monitors revealed that no chemical, biological or radiological threat existed," Rutledge said. He said further testing indicated that the substance was sugar water and was not hazardous.

Rutledge said patient walk-ins and ambulance traffic were temporarily interrupted until firefighters and police were able to declare the situation under control. Patients already in the emergency room and on patient care floors throughout the hospital were not affected.

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