Chemist considers legal action over materials seized.

Byline: Priyanka Dayal

MARLBORO - Victor M. Deeb is wondering why 20 years of his work was thrown away.

The 71-year-old chemist conducted experiments in the basement laboratory of his Fremont Street home for years, until last week, when authorities discovered his lair and seized most of his chemicals.

Firefighters came to Mr. Deeb's house the afternoon of Aug. 5 to extinguish a fire in a window air conditioner on the second floor. Quickly, they doused the flames and went to the basement to shut off the power. That's when they found 1,500 vials, jars, cans, bottles and boxes of chemicals. The materials were stacked on shelves, on tables and on the floor, and many of them were unlabeled.

The response came quickly. A state hazardous materials team, dozens of local officials and the FBI arrived to inspect the chemicals. The state Department of Environmental Protection contracted a cleanup company to remove everything that was hazardous and dispose of it. The Deebs were sent to a hotel while crews spent three days moving some 35 drums of chemicals from their home, which sits across the street from a playground.

The cluttered lab was a disaster waiting to happen, authorities say.

But Mr. Deeb, who has lived at 81 Fremont St. with his family for 20 years, calls the incident an assault on his creativity. He said he's considering legal action, because his property was taken without court approval.

"I'm not a lunatic trying to create explosives," he said in an interview in his living room yesterday. "I've never had an accident. I've never had a fire. I've never had an explosion. I've never had an emergency."

Mr. Deeb has worked in polymer chemistry for 45 years. He spent 20 years at Columbia, Md.-based chemicals company W.R. Grace before retiring in 1995. Then he devoted his energy to his home lab, where he spent a few hours every day of the week.

The work he was doing was well-intentioned, Mr. Deeb says. His projects include developing sealants and coating for the inside of lids for food containers, such as jelly and baby food. When melted at recycling plants, the metal lids of many food containers release dioxin - a harmful carcinogen - into the air. Mr. Deeb says he was trying to develop a safer lid. If he were to find a successful recipe, Mr. Deeb said, he would market his product to chemical companies.

One of his discoveries, he says, is an efficient way to recycle rubber from used tires, which can be used for roofing and asphalt.

The materials he was using were all approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Mr. Deeb says, and were no more toxic than bleach, acetone and common household products stored under most kitchen sinks. He lives with his wife and their 18-year-old son, and he says he would never bring anything into the house that could harm them.

DEP said none of the materials found at Mr. Deeb's home posed a radiological or biological risk, and there was no mercury or poison. Some of the compounds were potentially explosive, but so are typical household cleaning products, the DEP said.

All materials authorities deemed potentially hazardous were stripped from the home. The materials considered safe were left in Mr. Deeb's basement, which still contains several cardboard boxes and glass jars.

"I strongly believe they have violated my civil rights," he said. "I was not doing anything immoral down there ... They can't all of a sudden tear my experiments apart."

Marlboro Fire Chief David Adams stood by his department's actions.

"We, at that point, needed to take action immediately," he said. "We didn't know what we had, and we had to assess what needed to be removed ... We need to treat every incident as a potentially hazardous and deadly situation.

"I don't think there was anything that gave us red flags, but based on the quantities (of materials), we had to take that standard, safe, precautionary, step-by-step process," he continued. "This was a residential neighborhood, and Mr. Deeb was conducting a research and development business in a residential property."

That is a clear violation of zoning laws, city officials say, but they have not announced any penalties. The investigation is continuing.

"We lose track sometimes of why there are zoning ordinances," said Pamela A. Wilderman, Marlboro code enforcement officer. "We think it's because we want our community to look pretty, but zoning was originally started as fire protection."

Mr. Deeb came down hard on city officials, especially on Ms. Wilderman, who asked him to leave his home while his lab was dismantled.

Ms. Wilderman said it wasn't just the huge quantity of chemicals that concerned her, but how they were stored.

"Boxes of stuff was just thrown on the floor," she said. "It was a mess. It was a hazardous materials incident just waiting to happen. ... He was keeping flammable chemicals right next to his furnace.

"The city entered the building because it was on fire. That takes care of the search warrant issue," she added.

Mr. Deeb protests that authorities seized even the notes and observations he has recorded over the past 20 years, but Ms. Wilderman said he was given more than one opportunity to retrieve those notes, and that he declined.

Since Mr. Deeb's situation was revealed in news reports last week, sympathizers and fellow scientists have been voicing support for Mr. Deeb on the Internet. Ms. Wilderman said she has received calls from people around the country criticizing the city for putting an end to Mr. Deeb's work.

"People like to think that this is America and you can do whatever you want," she said. "That's not exactly true. ... You still don't get to put other people in danger. ... I understand his willingness to continue his scientific study. Unfortunately the location is inappropriate."

That explanation doesn't sit well with Mr. Deeb, who said he doesn't have any immediate plans to continue his work.

"How can I?" he said. "I am a creative guy who needs to have an outlet. That was my outlet. That was my domain."

Contact Priyanka Dayal by e-mail at [e-mail].

ART: PHOTO

PHOTOG: ROGER B. CONANT

CUTLINE: Firefighters and hazardous materials crews are shown in an Aug. 5 file photo at 81 Fremont St., Marlboro, where containers of chemicals were found.