THE owner of a fishing lodge on Lewis was rushed to hospital after a freak accident in which his vacuum cleaner accidentally sucked up a bag of cyanide powder which then burst.

The deadly pesticide, thought to have been used decades ago against troublesome rabbits, shot through the cleaner and came out the other end in a cloud of dust which showered businessman Dickon Green.

As he was being rushed to hospital by a neighbour, the emergency services on the Isle of Lewis were called out to stop them getting to hospital and coming into contact with patients and staff.

Uig Lodge from the main road

It was at Uig Lodge, a fishing lodge in Timsgarry on the west of Lewis, that Mr Green was vacuum-packing a tin of the deadly powder ready for it to be transported for safe disposal at a mainland poisons depository.

He’d found it in the lodge where it was thought to have been for many years since previous owners used it for exterminating rats and had failed to get a local agency to take responsibility for its safe disposal.

A local man explained: “Dickon was using a vacuum cleaner to suck the air out of the plastic bag into which he had put the tin of cyanide. The lid of the tin suddenly collapsed and the cyanide was immediately sucked into the vacuum cleaner.
“The powder then blew out the other end of the cleaner and the air was full of cyanide dust. Dickon realised he had breathed it in and went to get help.”

Firstly, trying to get help at the local GP surgery in Miavaig, he found it shut after 5pm. However, a 24-year-old man in Miavaig was a Good Samaritan who offered to take Mr Green to hospital after learning it would take some time for an ambulance to get to reach them.

The pair headed off in Uig Lodge’s Volkswagen Golf and were met by the ambulance at the Great Bernera road-end.

The car stopped by the ambulance

The source said: “They continued in the ambulance but it was then stopped by police near Achmore, eight miles from Stornoway. The cops had been ordered to stop it getting to the hospital to avoid possible contamination of the staff and patients.”

A roadside decontamination unit was set up. That involved the men taking all their clothes off and being hosed down with cold water by firefighters. Part of the main route from Stornoway to the west side of the island, between Cameron Terrace and Achmore, was closed for a time.

Mr Green and his companion then taken to Western Isles Hospital where a tent was also set up outside the accident and emergency department. Two female paramedics tending them were then also washed down in the makeshift warm shower which was run from a fire engine. They were not detained.

Uig Lodge was closed down by the emergency services for a while but was opened after a few hours.  The island council’s environmental health officers were at the outhouse and it was still sealed off.

Police in Stornoway confirmed the incident had been reported to the Health and Safety Executive.  They also said they also were probing the circumstances surrounding what had happened and the substance involved.

Mr Green and the Good Samaritan were discharged after their assessment.

Last night (THU) Dickon Green said it was actually two old tins of rabbit poison containing Cymag and that he had asked various authorities how to dispose of them before getting agreement from a mainland firm to dispose of them.