A Sampson County woman discovered a hard lesson over the weekend when she mixed chemicals without the proper professional training and found herself struggling to breathe.

According to Sampson County Emergency Management officials, a woman, believed to be in her 50s, tried to clear a stubborn drainage pipe in her home, located in the 2000 block of Hobbton Highway, by mixing two powerful chemicals together, Saturday around 11 a.m. and was quickly overtaken by the chemical odor.

“We got the call for breathing difficulties around 11 a.m.,” explained Sampson County EMS deputy director Jerry Cashwell. “The woman met responders at the front door and told them that she had mixed two to three cleaning chemicals together to try and unclog a drain.”

Cashwell said the chemical mixture reacted and sent out a strong odor throughout the woman’s mobile home. The Hazardous Materials Team from Cumberland County was called to the scene to neutralize the odor and properly clean up the woman’s residence.

“We didn’t have to evacuate any neighbors or anything like that,” Cashwell noted, “but the homeowner was taken to the Sampson Regional Medical Center because of her breathing issues.”

The woman, who was not named in the report, can consider herself lucky, some mixtures of household chemicals can be toxic or deadly.

“It happens more frequently than you would think,” acknowledged Cashwell of citizens mixing household chemicals. “People need to be very, very careful when handling those products because they are very dangerous.”

To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or email to sisports@heartlandpublications.com.