BOSTON (AP) — Authorities continue to investigate the contents of 10 canisters hauled in by a Massachusetts-based clam dredger that sent crew members to the hospital.
The U.S. Coast Guard said ESS Pursuit caught the canisters in its nets Sunday about 45 miles south of Long Island but dumped them back into the ocean when one crew member began developing blisters.
That crew member and a second were taken to the hospital Monday when the vessel returned to New Bedford, Mass., where it has been quarantined in the harbor.
The captain, Kieran Kelly, told The Standard-Times that two more crew members were taken to the hospital Monday night.
Dr. Ed Boyer, a toxicologist at UMass Medical Center who treated one crew member, told WCVB-TV that the person's symptoms were consistent with World War I-era mustard gas.
