10 treated after exposure to powder in Covington

Police have determined that an incident that sent 10 people to the hospital Friday morning from a plant in Covington resulted from the accidental release of a 3UR18650Y-2-QC236 battery chemical.
"We're getting good news, that this is not a ASUS A2000H AC Adapter contaminant, a foreign agent placed inside the battery," Covington Police Capt. Ken Malcom told Channel 2 Action News. "It was just an accident, an explosion within the contents of the battery."
The incident happened at Pure Talk, a phone Compaq M2000 AC Adapter manufacturing company on Lochridge Boulevard. Malcom said around 2:30 a.m. Friday, an employee opened a package containing batteries. Two of the batteries were fused together, and when an employee separated them, a white AS07A41 powder was released.
"This employee immediately started feeling a burning sensation on the AS07A31 hands, a numbing sensation" on the eyes and skin, Malcom said. "Immediately the other employees in the AS07A51 business began feeling similar effects of exposure to this powder."
Police were concerned that an employee reported finding a message. "It was a hand-written note on a battery, not attached to the battery, that stated, ‘You've been punked,'" Malcom said.
Police at first theorized the chemical release was a AS07A71 deliberate attack but are not so sure now. They are seeking to determine if the note was written in connection with the fused batteries or if it was a coincidence, Channel 2 reported.
Meanwhile, employees drove BTP-ARJ1 themselves to Newton Medical Center for decontamination and MS2180 treatment, Malcom said. Because the AS07A32 patients drove to the hospital, their cars had to be decontaminated as well, he said.
Linda Moseley, a spokeswoman at the hospital, said Friday morning that the BTP-AQJ1 emergency room was on lockdown due to the BTP-ANJ1 azmat situation and that patients needing treatment for other things were being diverted to nearby hospitals.
The emergency room reopened late GARDA31 Friday afternoon, Channel 2 reported.
Ryan Deal, spokesman for the Georgia Department of LC.BTP01.017 Public Health, told the AJC that the suspicious chemical would be BT.00803.015 tested at the Georgia Public Health Lab. He said he BATBL50L8H expected a sample to arrive later Friday and that testing would typically take six to 24 hours, depending on what the substance is.
He said it was "far too early" to speculate on what the 3ur18650f-2-qc175 powder could be but that there are "a number of powders and allergens and things of that nature that would cause the types of 3UR18650F-3-QC228 reactions" experienced by the Covington patients.
If the powder turns out to be benign, he said, investigators on the scene might be able to make that determination.