Irving refinery dust a 'nuisance' only: official

An Irving Oil official says there shouldn't be any health concerns about an incident at the refinery that left several homes and cars in east Saint John covered with a grey residue Friday morning.

Dale Cooper, the refinery's processing manager, said the material is a catalyst made from clay and silica compounds.

It was released during the startup of a processing unit Thursday evening. Cooper said it's normal to have some material escape but the large amount this time was unusual.

It's still unclear how much was released, but at least three Saint John neighbourhoods had cars and homes covered in grey, gritty dust, including some several kilometres away, down Loch Lomond Road.

Cooper says officials are looking into exactly how much was released, what caused it and how to prevent a reoccurrence.

"It's classified as a non-regulated substance and non-hazardous," he said.

"And it's really more of a nuisance substance than a health concern, because it's such a low level of exposure where it gets dusted on people's cars and that. It really is just like a nuisance-type, like dust or sand."

Irving Oil offered residents in the neighbourhood free vouchers to have their homes or cars cleaned.

The provincial Environment Department is investigating.