Two Men Hospitalised After Chemical Contamination

Two men were contaminated with chemical powder earlier this week, after a drum of waste products began to leak behind a shop in Oxfordshire. The incident took place in Banbury on Wednesday morning, after the cleaners came into contact with waste products from the Specsavers Optician branch on Bridge Street. The men began vomiting, itching and broke out in blisters, and emergency services were called to the scene at around 9:15am.The incident is being investigated by Cherwell District Council and the Oxfordshire fire service.Deputy Chief Fire Officer Mike Smythe commented: "We just had two of our specialist officers in gas-tight suits enter the area, they've made tests of the substance. "We are confident, at the moment, that the substance is in fact inert but we do need to finish off those tests results." Officials have not released details of the results of the testing, but it is believed that the waste products in question were the plastic shavings of spectacle lenses, which created a white powder, created after opticians resized the lenses to fit inside the frames. The two men involved were taken to Horton Hospital, after they were washed down with warm water in a decontamination tent and dressed in sterile white paper suits. The clothing has been taken away for forensic examinations.