BIOLAB FIRE: Georgia Poison Center has taken nearly 700 calls about exposure to chlorine symptoms

Rockdale County Chemical Fire: Biolabs has a history of fires at Conyers facility Thousand of people remain evacuated from their homes after a chemical fire broke out Sunday morning at the Biolab facility on Old Covington Highway. (WSBTV.com News Staff)

By Candace McCowan

ATLANTA — According to Georgia Emergency Management Association, metro Atlanta will wake up to a haze Thursday and possibly the smell of chlorine.

And nighttime is when that smoke and air settles towards the ground. It is the reason officials want you to shelter inside in these overnight hours.

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In Stonecrest, people do not want to hear that the chlorine plume from neighboring Rockdale County is headed their way. DeKalb County resident Michette Turner believes it is already there.

“I have bronchitis, asthma or whatever and today my eyes have been burning. I have been sneezing,” said Turner.

As the plume spreads, so does the concern. The Georgia Poison Center has taken nearly 700 calls about the Biolab fire since it began Sunday morning, according to the center’s director Dr. Gaylord Lopez.

“A good number of these people are calling in with symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine and chlorine related compounds,” said Dr. Lopez about the callers who mostly have respiratory symptoms, but also some with skin and eye irritation.

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Dr. Lopez said the symptoms should be short lived and should resolve on their own. But that is not for everyone.

“When someone has breathing problems, regardless of whatever issue is out there we want to make sure this is a symptom that gets evaluated,” Dr. Lopez.

At the Poison Center they have had more than double the calls coming in each day about the plume. They’ve double their staff of Grady medical professionals to take the calls.

“I am working from home the next two days. That is a good thing but with me having asthma in the way I do. I am really concerned about that because it can,” said DeKalb resident, Cheree Kofa.

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