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economist sunsuntribune health saturday feb 26 2005 11 toxic thornhill high school subject of case study by roy green staff writer when vaughan para medics and firefighters dis covered a high school seem ingly awash in a toxic sub stance last summer they began preparing for the worst anxious students were suffering from skin irritations and breathing difficulties because a powdery blue sub stance had been liberally sprinkled on doorknobs handrails and in stairwells at st elizabeth catholic high school in thornhill eleven students were sent to hospital and another 156 underwent onsite deconta mination in the five hours following the 155 pm call to the vaughan fire and ems station the events of june 15 were the subject of a case study of a cbrn disaster the study took place at ontarios firstever chemical biological radiological and nuclear conference in rich mond hill this week more than 400 first responders police firefighters and para medics from across ontario attended the twoday event when youre dealing with an unknown substance you have to begin gearing up for the worstcase scenario morris faccin emergency medical services operations supervisor for region coming upon the anxious students made for some scary moments morris fac cin operations supervisor for the regions emergency med ical services recalled in an interview following the case study he was joined by jim orton platoon chief with vaughans fire and rescue service insp tony cusimano of york regional police and joseph mancuso health pro tection manager with the regions health department when youre dealing with an unknown substance you have to begin gearing up for the worstcase scenario mr faccin said the event they later learned began as an exam week prank when a student sprinkled visible stain pow der a nontoxic powder used to identify thieves it can cause skin and eye irritation and can also be more serious for someone with asthma we traced it to a labora tory in north carolina he ordered it off the internet said insp cusimano adding the incident turned out to be a near perfect example of unified command the theme of the twoday confer ence close to 100 firefighters paramedics police and med ical personnel from vaughan richmond hill toronto and the region were at the school that day and involved in assisting and processing stu dents crowd control investi gation and security soon after the first call came in mr orton said though there was anxi ety among the kids there was no panic and we were able to shut the school down and close off certain areas in an orderly fashion he said if there was one area where things were not co ordinated mr paccin said it was that the health unit was nt immediately advised about the incident we called public health 9filll jphnrw cbe g rsaltzj epp h4 st j zsm i v f j8f hh l s ite fin iwbhmbb ihhbss 9bsqk abfflbbpbe so wst w 1 fm hstoffftgnfiimh hh 1 ktnsi v- 2s wbp- m jfcftjfflbmj hfisolh ksspimsj m i hp jm ki m sstjggi hjfcp bi ft5rt mi y wmm staff photosteve somerville majorgeneral retired lewis mackenzie was the keynote speaker for a twoday chemical radiological and nuclear conference at the sheraton parkway north hotel wednesday the event was hosted by york region emergency medical services in very late we werent think ing about that right off the top he said the health unit would have been able to assist with risk assessment mr mancu so said we learned we need to communicate a little bet ter they werent aware we should have been there from the outset he said but all agreed the coordi nation of events that june day went pretty smoothly it worked and we all learned from the incident mr orton said a day following the inci dent even as york regional police were studying school surveillance videos a 17- yearold student turned him self in to police and was charged with mischief kikfiss a place in markham for people ages 16 and up to meet friends use a computer see movies learn to cook receive supportive counselling find out about 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