Horizontal Ellipse (...) Causing Errors in ODBC Connection

We are having an issue with our Informix database and querying information where there is a Horizontal Ellipse (...) in the data column. Our user interface doesn't limit which characters a user inputs and some are copying and pasting data from a MS Word document which sometimes pastes in the Horizontal Ellipse (...). The problem is that when we try to query the data through an ODBC Connection the query will their error out or lock up the whole ODBC service on our web server taking the website down. Anyone have experiences with this or an idea on how to get around this? We are running informix 11.5 and using an ODBC Connection to query data from ColdFusion MX7. Thanks, James