CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas—A ship off the Texas coast released a colorless cancer-causing gas this week, but Coast Guard officials say they expect no impact on a nearby community.

The Coast Guard is investigating why air monitor alarms aboard the Venusgas and near the Occidental Chemical Corp.'s plant in Ingleside did not sound, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported in its online edition Friday.

A one-mile safety zone surrounded the vessel most of Friday after the guard discovered it had released vinyl chloride monomer, which the plant uses to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other co-polymers.

The buffer zone will remain in place until the Coast Guard determines it is safe for a team to look for the leak and plug it up, said Capt. Bob Paulison. If inhaled, the raw vapors may be harmful or fatal, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The ship, which arrived Wednesday, was loading the gas about 5:30 a.m. Thursday when air monitor alarms sounded at DuPont Fluoroproducts, a chemical plant next to Occidental.

About 30 people sought medical attention, including two members of the Coast Guard, Paulison said.

"The two Coast Guard personnel were released later that day," Paulison said. "Most of (the people) were sent as a precaution."

Sherry Carr-Deer, a spokeswoman with Christus Spohn Hospital, said eight people involved in the incident were treated at Christus Spohn Hospital South for respiratory irritation and were released about three hours later.

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