Wikimedia Commons(CNN) - Six staff members at a prison in Connecticut were taken to local hospitals for possible exposure to fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid, the Connecticut Department of Correction said.
An ambulance was called to the Cheshire Correctional Institute, a state prison, at 9 a.m. on Tuesday to take a correctional officer in medical distress to the hospital, the department said in a statement.
The Department of Correction and Connecticut State Police are investigating.
The correctional institution has 428 current staffers and emphasizes rewards for deserving inmates, including in educational programming, its website states.
That potency means that police, first responders and prison staffers can overdose or suffer health effects after even a minor encounter with the drug.