Missouri cop survives deadly chemicals after opening drug take-back box

A police officer in Missouri was exposed to arsenic and cyanide while emptying the Excelsior Springs Police Department’s prescription drug take-back box last week.

The box has since been closed, the department announced on Facebook Monday. The box and broken bottles inside are in the possession of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“Unfortunately, someone used the box to dispose of non-approved substances of a very toxic nature, namely mercury cyanide and arsenic, in vintage glass bottles. These bottles had broken and on Friday [Oct. 20], while one of our officers was doing the routine emptying of the drug take-back box, they were exposed to these deadly substances,” police officials wrote in the post.

The officer, 15-year department veteran Investigative Specialist Andy Warner, said the brush with the chemicals was the most danger he experienced in his career.

“I quickly started smelling a strong metallic smell and began sweating profusely,” Mr. Warner told WDAF-TV, the Fox affiliate in Kansas City, a half hour from Excelsior Springs.

Mr. Warner was later told by the toxicologist that he was lucky not to have died and that their department had not dealt with arsenic and cyanide in 50 years, he recounted to WDAF-TV.

Mr. Warner had persistent headaches for two days due to the exposure but did not need to go to the hospital and is now doing fine, Excelsior Springs Police Chief Greg Dull told KCTV-TV, the Kansas City CBS station.

Police are reexamining their take-back box policy due to fears of future chemical exposure. In this instance, however, the arsenic and cyanide were not donated maliciously.

“This was a total accident. I asked at the police station before depositing the containers and was told it was OK. So sorry this caused any problems,” the Excelsior Springs Museum & Archives commented on the police department’s post.