EPA detects asbestos and other organic pollutants in aftermath of IN recycling plant fire

As a two-day inferno fizzles out at a plastics recycling plant a state judge deemed a public health hazard, up to 2,000 residents of an eastern Indiana city are still waiting to learn if it’s safe to go home. The chemicals hydrogen cyanide, benzene, chlorine, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, were detected at the center of the fire zone – with “none … detected outside of the evacuation zone in the community,” the US Environmental Protection Agency said Friday, noting firefighters should take precautions.