A Coraopolis company recalling kerosene possibly tainted with dangerous gasoline is relying on non-traditional methods to alert traditional Amish communities to the problem.

Pittsburgh Terminals Corp. is reaching out to midwives, police, state agencies and business people in contact with the Amish to spread the word.

In short, the company is asking for whatever help it can get to notify Old Order Amish settlements where no one watches TV or uses computers. A traditional media blitz just won't work.

"We're just trying to be creative in our contacts," said Karen Walsh, a company spokeswoman.

In at least one case, a businessman reached out to Pittsburgh Terminals Corp. Tim Cotton, an industrial supply company sales manager in Massillon, Ohio, learned about the recall yesterday morning from the radio.

He did what Old Order Amish don't -- used the Internet to locate the company and then phoned in to say he was willing to help. Mr. Cotton's company, Nelson Industrial Supply, does not sell kerosene, but he has 20 years of experience in sales to the Amish community.

"I would hate to think I knew about this and one of my customers was injured due to my neglect," Mr. Cotton said.

By yesterday afternoon, Mr. Cotton had planned to mail between 200 to 300 letters to customers -- including Amish business people and schools -- with information about the recall.

"We're just kind of blanketing the area as best we can with the contacts we have. I'm hoping that for every one contact we have, we'll generate 10 more contacts in the neighborhood of the business," Mr. Cotton said.

Efforts by people such as Mr. Cotton, who has deep and long ties to the Amish community, are just what is needed in a situation like this, said Dr. Donald Kraybill, senior fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County.

There is no central way for Pittsburgh Terminals Corp. to reach the Amish, some of whom buy kerosene for lighting and cooking during the summer. So the next best thing is to find liaisons who straddle the Amish and non-Amish worlds and are trusted by the Amish.

"I do think health-care workers, physicians and midwives that have Amish clients would certainly be sources that Amish people would trust and could certainly help inform them of the issues and the danger related to this," Dr. Kraybill said.

There is precedent for public health and safety issues arising in the non-Amish world to intrude upon Amish life.

Dr. Kraybill recalled that the federal Centers for Disease Control contacted him earlier this year after spring flooding in the Midwest to solicit advice for warning Amish in Illinois and Iowa about potential damage to food and cattle supplies.

There are about 52,000 Amish in Pennsylvania and 55,000 in Ohio, the nation's two largest Amish population centers, Dr. Kraybill said. Of those, he estimated that perhaps 20 percent use kerosene as opposed to more progressive Amish who might use propane, flashlights or other fuel.

It is not clear how much kerosene has been tainted or where the kerosene has ended up.

Pittsburgh Terminals Corp., a petroleum products company that sells kerosene to 37 distributors, has issued a recall covering Western Pennsylvania east to Ligonier and west to Wooster, Ohio, south to Buckhannon, W. Va. and north to southwestern New York. The recall involves kerosene sold between May 1 and Tuesday.

A distributor in Erie found the problem Wednesday after discovering that a batch of kerosene had a lower flash point -- the lowest temperature at which it will ignite -- associated with gasoline. Kerosene mixed with gasoline can be dangerous to burn.

"When you take an oil lamp and you put gasoline in there, you better get out of the house," said Andrew Troyer, an Amish businessman in Crawford County who had not heard of the problem until told by a reporter.

Once the contamination was noticed, Pittsburgh Terminals Corp. uncovered two faulty valves that allowed the unwanted mixture to occur and fixed the problem, Ms. Walsh said, correcting earlier information that only one valve was involved. By nightfall, a recall had been issued.

"We've cast a wide net here because the problem was intermittent," Ms. Walsh said. "A lot of the kerosene is perfectly fine. We just don't know, which is why we want to err on the side of the caution."