Officials warn public away from shuttle debris.

The trouble is twofold: Liquid nitrogen could combine with oxygen in the atmosphere to form nitrous oxide, a gas that can be fatal if inhaled. The second possibility is that either liquid oxygen or liquid nitrogen can severely burn anything or anyone it touches, Perry said.
Texas Department of Health spokesman Doug McBride said they were awaiting word from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and NASA as to what hazards the debris may contain.
“We don’t know what kind of chemicals are on the spacecraft,” he said.
Much of the debris scattered across Nacogdoches, where authorities ordered people to stay 100 yards away from the debris because of contamination fears. Those who had touched the wreckage were urged to get medical attention.
“What we fly in space is operated in many cases with toxic propellant and some of the debris may be contaminated, so we need to be careful,” shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said.
Shuttles have long used a chemical called hydrazine to run their auxiliary power units. Hydrazine, a colorless liquid with an ammonia-like odor, is a toxic chemical and can cause harm to anyone who contacts it.
A water plant was closed in the Louisiana town of Many because of fears that toxic debris fell into the Toledo Bend reservoir along the Texas-Louisiana line.
“To be safe rather than sorry we closed the water plant until further notice,” Many Mayor Ken Freeman said.

Here’s the text of the entire article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/02/sprj.colu.shuttle.health.ap/index.html
Officials warn public away from shuttle debris
Sunday, February 2, 2003 Posted: 8:56 AM EST (1356 GMT)
Residents look at a piece of debris from the space shuttle Columbia on highway 84 near Maydell, Texas on Saturday.
Residents look at a piece of debris from the space shuttle Columbia on highway 84 near Maydell, Texas on Saturday.
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