Poisoned because someone did not care about his job!

Thursday I was doing technical service to a fire detection system at an institution where physical and mental handicapped people work.
This includes physical testing of each wired fire detector once a year. This is by far not my main job but I´m certified to do it so I jumped in for another work mate this time.

There comes some responsibility with this, as noticing the fire and rescue control center where the system is hooked up via telephone/gsm.
You are the one who is responsible for calling the fire department if a fire breaks out and the system is not online, this comes to weight later.

So I was testing this fire detector in a kitchen at and it was mounted underneath one of those tin-panels at the ceiling that you can lift out.

It looks like this:
www.solo-tester.com...
You can see the same plates on the picture

Normally they stay in place when you test the detectors but this time it did not. It lifted as soon as I placed my tester underneath and after some struggle to put it back in place with my telescope rod, it fell down on me. I was covered in white and red dust and barely managed to grab the panel so it wont crush down on the floor and squash the detector. I went to my car to clean my face because the washroom was in use at the moment. So I took a ladder with me to put it back in place and went on with testing the next group of detectors.

Approximately 2-3 minutes later I noticed a burning sensation in my eyes, nose and throat, my lips went all dry and I started to get shifted visuals. This was when I realized something was not right and I went to the washroom to clean myself up and noticed red pebbles in my hair and sneezed some out of my nose. At first I thought it´s blood but then I realized it has to do with that dust that came down on me.

I went back to the kitchen and noticed a little tin can with red powder in and around it on the floor some meters away from the place the ceiling came down. I turned it and saw some poison signs and a bolt line stating to call this number if it came into contact with you. So I did and man I was terrified to hear that this was Chlorpyrifos a serious poison when inhaled and ingested.

The lady on the hotline then took my position and asked what hospital I was going (managed to get a driver fast) and noticed me if I would not show up in 30 minutes they would send ambulance to get me there. At this point my eyes were watering and I got headaches and slight orientation problems.

The problem was, the system was still running offline and in test mode and I had to turn it back on because I was the only one able to do this in this region, sending a mate to my position would have took almost 2.5-3 hours of drive depending on traffic, so I had no option to get through the trouble resetting the system and noticing the firedepartment control center that they can turn the modem on live again.

Problem this was an old SIEMENS cerberus sytem where you have to reset each detector group by hand. This took about 10 minutes and after that someone from the disabled had thought they would help me doing my job, pressing one of the fire alarm button just after I disabled testmode. Thus spawning a genuine firealarm and I had run to the damn thing while everybody tried to get out of the building. Fast forward about ten minutes later I was on my way to the emergency station at the hospital with devil red eyes, sore nose and mouth and serious headaches coming in waves.

We rushed in and after they flushed my eyes nose and mouth out the doctor heard a blistering in my lung and they made a rontgen/thorax image and saw I have something in my lungs. They put me on intensive care instantly 24h until Friday morning 10 o´clock in the morning. Gave me several infusions and I had to breath on a machine that trains your lungs to inflate and deflate properly. It was living hell 24h I could not sleep but was tired to death, my kindeys hurt all night, face was spanning, nose burnt no smell, throat was thick and I really thought I´m going to die I was shivering so much I could not urinate myself into that damn plastic hose.
Without the machine, my breathing rythm fell down to 3 breaths a minute and later on friday morning, I was managing 12-14 breaths on my owm, so2 concentration I could watch on my monitor all night was alerting the staff every 20-30 minutes and they had to readjust something. Heartbeatrythm low as 54 and some other values I don´t know to interpret.

Of course the doctors and sisters/brothers did calm me down and I managed to not die. It must have been a serious allergic shock that drew of over night and at friday morning, most parameters were on common levels again but I´m not smelling that much and my eyes are still irritated. They send me on normal station on friday morning and let me off at around 12 o´clock.

So why was someone not doing his job? Because you damn sure have to put signs on the ceiling if you put a can of poison (was there ten years, not even allowed anymore, nobody knew!) on the ceiling in a way that it can fall down.

Oh and I said to the cook in the kitchen that this is not insect # but mice # and that this kind of poison would not help with his problem. I saw the hate in his eyes, this was not a good "joke" to him but who is working in a kitchen with mice # and insect poison???

The "Institution for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention" is running rampant about my accident and I will investigate into the company that is in charge of putting these killers on top of ceiling plates. If I experience any smell or sight problems in future I will sue the crap out of them.

Who is this #ing asshole who puts poison in the ceiling and not even caring tagging the place with signs LIKE ITS SUPPOSED TO BE!!!!
At and institution where mentally and physically handicapped people slender along? In a kitchen???
If I would have #ed up with the fire system or with my main job at work, people may die. I know my responsibilities and sure take all the time needed to get everything perfect. Even if it means over-hours or less sleep. Goddamn were talking about lives at risk here so what is this guy throwing poison into the ceiling and just leave without tagging? I mean come on, this kind of work (if not for the poison) is a two step thing:
Place the box in the ceiling and tag.
Place the box in the ceiling and tag.
Even cleaning a floor is more conquering.

Sure people make mistakes but this kind of mistake is pure carelessly. I mean it takes a second to verify the work before going to the next ceiling plate!

RANT OVER!

a reply to: verschickter

wow. it is a rant but it should be in another section of ATS; because it is an important issue.
Just terrible. ICU for 24 hours ...
I hope you will have a complete recovery and that there is no other side effects that could affect your health long term.

a reply to: Thurisaz

I hope so. Yesterday taking a shower I had to cough so much I had to turn of the water and get out of the room because of the water vapor. It´s not that I´m the fittest in the cage anyways because I have problems with morbus chron since 2012, I had to go through terrible times and live losses I don´t want to bitch about now because I know there are people that suffer worse such as MS patients I have experienced that second hand.

I know all about carelessness. Where I work a guy was fired because instead of following the proper procedures he took a short cut. Thing is, he was a welder on pressurized tank train cars, instead of actually doing three weld passes he just did one big one and buffed it out. They saw this on the x-ray, and had to either fix his massive mistake or just scrap the entire thing. Ended up they had to scrap it.
If we didn't x-ray the welds, think about what terrible gasses or liquids could have exploded out of that thing.

Taking the extra steps for safety should never be an issue.

Glad you made it out alright OP! And hope you can confront that person who did that about their mistake one day, tell em how you feel.

a reply to: verschickter
Call a lawyer and sue the facility for damages. Screw'em

a reply to: strongfp

Chances are low I get into contact with the exact guy because it turned out they swapped the company who "installs" these things around the time the poison was prohibited (USA around 2001, Germany around 2004). The company that produces these was swallowed by HENKEL.

Fun fact: The lady I first spoke to, told me they can´t help me much because they normally handle cases like swallowing a calgon tab and such. She redirected me to a propper poison hotline.

I hope you'll be okay.

I've seen supervisors DELIBERATELY expose workers to asbestos without telling them what they were drilling in to.

Not just negligence, but premeditated and lethal poisoning.

By the time the worker develops cancer from it, the supervisor is long gone.

a reply to: Psynic

That will be the biggest problem, making the guy responsible because I can imagine that if there are any records, they may be "lost". Ten years is a long time and if you imagine there could be two or three people involved in this, finger pointing is going to mess with the investigation.

edit: Oh god after reading my rant again, I noticed some embarrassing spelling and grammar mistakes but I restrain from editing all these to not mess up everything. Because of some timeout or waterfox quitting it´s process again (had to ctrl c everything several times because of this)

You have a very good rant here. People who do this kind of pest control are supposed to put it into an area where it will never be a problem. On top of the ceiling panels is not such a location. People have to go up there occasionally.

Regulating these poisons and applications necessitates better training of people doing it. It also means hiring people who can think and comprehend other people's possible actions. We live in a society that promotes risk. What do you expect. People need to understand their actions can effect someone in the future negatively and compensate for that.

Hope you get better quickly.

Thank you, OP. Your raw determination and disregard for your own safety above the safety of others ensured the safety of many valuable lives. I nominate you for a position of power in office, and only other people like you for all the other seats. You are truly a hero. I hope for your recovery to be swift and without complication. Thank God for you, and every person like you.

In a world where wasting is a trend, TV stars teach us, and War rages without empathy, we breed less and less the soul like yours. May your inspiration fuel the dying fires in all of our hearts that we may put ourselves behind the individuals we are hired to serve and never forget that they hire us because they need help, that we are the ones called upon. I am truly inspired.

a reply to: RodNasty

To be honest, it was not only the risk of a possible fire that drove me, more like saving my ass because I could not be sure that nothing happens and I still have responsibility and it was not clear for me, that if something happened , my duty to take the system online again would be nullified because I was in hospital. With high probability it would be I think but I could not be sure.

Additionally, if I would have had more serious problems like 30 minutes after all this, I would not have been able to do it and would have told them to call the fire department manually and they would be on alert because of this. After all there are still people there who are in charge of the handicapped.

So I restrain from being painted a hero but I appreciate your kind words.

Be thankful, many have died from that stuff...

Dow Chemical’s concealed 294 reports of chlorpyrifos death

An investigation conducted by New Zealand’s 60 Minutes current affairs program titled To Die For has found high levels of the pesticide chlorpyrifos in The Downtown Inn, the Chiang Mai hotel linked to the deaths of at least seven tourists earlier this year (see: Lost smiles in LOS as Thailand travel tragedies website goes live).

Chlorpyrifos – Outlawed in homes and gardens, the pesticide is still sprayed on food crops and is now blamed for the deaths of seven tourists in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Chlorpyrifos – Outlawed in homes and gardens, the pesticide is still sprayed on food crops and is now blamed for the deaths of seven tourists in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The dangers of chlorpyrifos did not become apparent until the mid-1990s and at the time it was found Dow were in possession of 249 reports of chlorpyrifos poisoning that they had failed to forward to the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), despite being honor bound to do so. Dow was subsequently fined $US732,000 for not submitting the reports, was ordered to remove the “safe” description from its chlorpyrifos product Dursban, and were ordered to pay an additional $2 million penalty.

What killed tourists in Chiang Mai

Kari Bowerman, 27, and Cathy Huynh, 26, were backpacking in Vietnam while on break from their jobs teaching English in South Korea.

On July 30, the friends were admitted to Khanh Hoa General Hospital in Nha Trang. Both were vomiting, had difficulty breathing and showed signs of severe dehydration.

Huynh was eventually released from the hospital. She returned later that night to hear the devastating news -- three hours after being admitted, Bowerman had gone into respiratory failure and died.

Two days later, Huynh was dead.

Mysterious tourist deaths in Asia prompt poison probe

a reply to: Murgatroid

I am, still there is an a**hole responsible for what happened! If there was a sign you know, I would have used my sabre.

www.smokesabre.com...

Always expect the dumbness of others, was one sentence my father said to me. Well, it´s proofed you can´t always.

(this is meant in a way to expect others to bring you in danger with their dumbness, not to use it agains them)

Also, your last quote gives me the creeps!!!!!!!!!!

Seems like the bad word filter has a bad day.

Glad you're alright, man. Sounds like a terrible thing to go through. I accidentally inhaled a chemical at work one time and it gave me chemical pneumonia. It was rough. Nowhere near what you went through, though. Like an above poster said, I would get a lawyer and see where you stand and put some pity on those fools(sorry, Mr. T fan here, had to). Good luck

For some reason, a lot of people don't take any pride in their work. It's just a paycheck for them.

a reply to: verschickter

OMG wow that is just horrible! I am so sorry you had to go through all of this all because of someones lack of responsibly and caring!

I hope they are found at fault and have to pay for all your care and then some. You should never have had to go through this. Someones carelessness caused you great pain and almost your life!

I agree this should be in another part of ATS because this is more than a rant!

Good luck with everything and I'm glad you are doing better.

a reply to: Fylgje
Now, that doesn´t sound like fun either. Pride in their work hits the nail on the head. Time may be an issue, too. Can someone be pride delivering poison? I don´t know but its a job that has to be done, too. But if, then please the safe way. Nice Mr.T connection, made me laugh ^^

a reply to: mblahnikluver
What part do you suggest, maybe a mod can push it there if it makes more sense.Your´re not the first one suggesting this.

Thank you all for the wishes, I´m doing better every hour and I´m glad.
Let´s see on Monday, if there is anything I could do. First I have to await the questioning from said institution about work safety. Did everything right as far as I know, so clearly not my fault.

I feel SO stupid...

Somehow I completely missed where you mentioned that this just happened even though you made it obvious.

I would have NEVER posted those quotes had I seen that.

I sincerely apologize verschickter and I'm a keepin' you in mah prayers bro...

a reply to: Murgatroid

No its good, dont blame yourself for giving me information. I accept it if it makes you feel better, thou. But I like to know if I´m over the hill or just climbing it. Everything seems to be going normal, little sick in the stomach but it´s nothing out of ordinary for me (morbus crohn). Breathing is ok, no worries. It was just my first reaction. Btw, what gave me little creeps now was seeing your avatar rolling towards me. First time i noticed it, thought wtf

If the stuff was in the ceiling for ten years how do you know the guy didn't tag it ten years ago. The tag might have just faded or fallen off.

The real question is how did you manage to dump poison on your face while your coworkers have run the same tests for ten years without incident. And why didn't your coworkers even mention the poison since they were in a position to see it.

That hospital might just sue you for causing the accident and you're definitely losing that contract.

I do give you credit though, it's mighty American of you to cause an accident and get upset at someone else for it.

If the stuff was in the ceiling for ten years how do you know the guy didn't tag it ten years ago. The tag might have just faded or fallen off.

The institute is responsible to keep signs and hazard preventions alive, after they have been installed. If there was a tag, and it fell off, it´s their fault to not put it back again. After all, those signs, are in signal colors and made to be read from distance.

The real question is how did you manage to dump poison on your face while your coworkers have run the same tests for ten years without incident. And why didn't your coworkers even mention the poison since they were in a position to see it.

Maybe the sign fell off? Joker. They were not in a position to see the poison. Look at the picture, or since when can we see through ceilings? Utter nonsense... Because we don´t lift that plate, the detector is under that plate, genius. It´s a tinplate, they contract and expand on heat conditions, maybe next time it will sit tight.

That hospital might just sue you for causing the accident and you're definitely losing that contract.

Hospitals sue nobody. The company I work for will charge the institute for the time I was not able to work. It´s a little bit more complicated but you would not understand.

I do give you credit though, it's mighty American of you to cause an accident and get upset at someone else for it.

I´m German.

What a failed attempt this was...