At first, it was only a trickle of calls coming into Georgia Poison Control on Sunday after a fire erupted at the BioLab plant in Conyers, releasing chemicals stored there into the air.
But by Monday, with a plume of smoke carrying chlorine lingering in the air, the calls started pouring in and the agency set up a hotline for people experiencing symptoms of exposure, including sore throat, eye irritation and difficulty breathing.
Credit: John Spink
As of Tuesday evening, Dr. Gaylord Lopez, executive director of Georgia Poison Control, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the emergency information service had received 334 calls from people reporting symptoms related to the incident. An additional 72 calls were taken from people with a wide range of questions about the chemicals released and the smoky haze.