Inquiry Under Way : Hospital Shuts Room Thought Leaking Gas

County health officials investigating two possible leaks of a hazardous gas at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Woodland Hills said Thursday that the hospital will not be allowed to use the equipment that may have been the source of the gas until investigations are complete.

Alarms sounded twice in the hospital basement Wednesday, signaling the presence of ethylene oxide, an irritating, possibly cancer-causing gas used to sterilize some surgical equipment.

A dozen people, some complaining of nausea, eye irritation and headaches, were washed down by firefighters and examined in the morning incident. At least 75 patients and hospital personnel were evacuated from the hospital’s basement and first floor after a second alarm rang at 6:30 p.m.

Eighteen employees and 12 patients who said their eyes stung or who complained of nausea or headaches were examined in the evening, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman. No further treatment was required, the spokesman said.

Investigators from the city Fire Department, the County Department of Health and the State Division of Occupational Safety and Health said they had not confirmed by late Thursday afternoon that ethylene oxide had caused the alarms and the symptoms.

“In any hospital, there are a number of different agents, any one of which could set off an alarm system,” said Janice Seib, a spokeswoman for Kaiser.

Several state and county officials agreed. Bill Obert, area manager for CAL-OSHA, said “a multitude of compounds” can set off the detectors used to measure ethylene oxide.

Nonetheless, the sterilizing chamber that may have been the source of the gas will have to be thoroughly inspected and tested before it can go into operation again, said Bud Pate, supervisor of the hospital inspection unit for the Los Angeles County Department of Health.

“What we will do now is have them . . . make sure it’s in compliance before we’ll allow them to use it again,” he said.

Seib said the hospital, after the incidents, had itself planned to stop operating the sterilizing equipment “until we can be assured that all systems, including the alarm, are operating correctly.” No hospital services will be affected, Seib said.