A Busy But Harmless Day For Hazmat in Princeton

Shortly after the Trenton Fire Department Hazmat team responded to a call about a white powdery substance in an envelope at a township business today, the team had to head over to the University Medical Center at Princeton because an employee found a box containing a white powdery substance there.

The box found by an employee at the hospital turned out to contain adhesive tape.The powdery substance discovered by an employee in an envelope at Church & Dwight turned out to be powdered sugar, police said. The envelope did contain a letter, and the case is being investigated by township police.

Just after 11 a.m., township police received a call from the employee at Church & Dwight about the suspicious white powder. The worker was the sole employee at the company’s 100 Thanet Circle building to come in to contact wit the envelope. Princeton Township Police, the Princeton First Aid Squad and the Princeton Fire Dept responded along with the Trenton Fire Department’s HAZMAT unit to investigate the incident and identify the substance.

The New Jersey State Police, the FBI and the Dept. of Homeland Security were all notified about the package. The powder was tested at the scene and preliminary results indicated the substance was powdered sugar from ShopRite (yes technology can even determine where the sugar was from thee days). About 120 employees were isolated and quarantined as a precautionary measure while the tests were conducted. No injuries were reported. Employees were allowed back in the building shortly after 1 p.m.

Less than a half an hour later, police received a call from a hospital employee who found a suspicious box that looked like it had a powdery substance in it. The package turned out to contain white adhesive tape that created a powdery residue.