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Rotten Office Fridge Cleanup Sends 7 To Hospital
bokske writes "An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill. Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday, after the flagrant fumes prompted someone to call 911. A hazmat team was called in. Just another day at the office."
I've worked in a chemistry lab that shared space with a lab using some really noxious amine compounds (cadaverine is named that way for a reason...). Mostly they weren't hospital-toxic, just nasty. Whenever they had to open their fridge we cleared out of the room for 10 minutes to let the fumes dissipate up the venting hoods.
That's really interesting. I have the opposite reaction— my immune system doesn't recognise new pollens until I've been exposed to them for about a year. Living abroad was heaven.
I worked for a company that built label printers. They conveniently placed an automatic label printer at every fridge. You pressed a button, and a label would print out with an expiration date. Anything past expiration or without a label was tossed daily.
-mkb
Unless it's literally chemicals that are affecting your health, or an airborne pathogen, you don't need medical attention.
Now, from TFA:
Authorities said the worker who cleaned the fridge didn't need treatment - she can't smell because of allergies.
I don't think a lack of the sense of smell makes you immuned. They were grossed out by a harmless smell, apparently. RTFA.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
I figured I would have been a Dirk Gently comment in here at some point. Something about a lurking refrigerator springing forth a Guilt God...
Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
The worst smell I've ever encountered: In a former life, I used to be a sheriff. One day I went to impound an old station wagon -- I could smell it from many feet away. I broke a window on the side of the car with the intent of seeing what's what, and immediately vomited on the street and ran away as fast as I could. I called the fire department to come with their Scott air packs to hook up the car and tow it to furthest back corner of the impound yard. After getting it to the impound yard, we examined it and discovered a liquified goo in a couple of large garbage bags in the back of the station wagon. The goo also contained small bones. We sampled it and sent the goo to the crime lab, thinking that it was parts of a rotted-away body. It turned out to be the remains of a large dog.
Nobody could go near that car without breathing apparatus. The smell apparently wouldn't kill you (I'm still here) but it sure did make me sick.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
I had a similar experience when one of my kids unplugged the deep freeze where we'd stored a quarter hog that we'd gotten as a present, and no one noticed for about 6 months. One day I wondered why there were so many flies around the back of the garage, opened the deep freeze, and instantly puked. It wasn't a matter of "being tough" or "strong stomached"; something raced from my olfactory nerves to the ancient, reptilian part of my brain which immediately issued the "purge upper GI tract" interrupt.
It was horrible. I ended up painting my nose and upper lip with Vick's Vapor Rub, tying two bandanas and a sweatshirt around my face, and shoveling out the re-frozen pigslush with a snowshovel. Neighbors from down the block were coming outside to find the cause of the stench.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Well, they should get a free training day as a digestion tower diver from their boss.
If I were their boss, I'd totally do it. :D
And: Yes, that is an actual job! You wear scuba gear, and jump into a 40C hot pool of shit, pee, an other "enzymes" and stuff. I think you have to have a dead nose and no wife to do that job. ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I have 2 comparable, horrible life experiences:
1. I used to work in residential property management. We had a "skip", where someone behind on their rent just moves out in the middle of the night and you have no idea they're gone until you show up with the Sheriff to boot them out/change the locks. Upon entering this one apartment, it was obvious the power had been off for quite a while. Yours truly was the lucky guy to open the fridge. Not only was it full of food, but in the freezer was what used to be at least a 15 lb turkey. Needless to say, it was more than aromatic. After several attempts to fumigate/disinfect/deodorize, we had to dispose of the fridge altogether and buy a new one.
2. The worst one was, in my early 20's my roommate (at the time) and I lived in a rather seedy section of town in a cheap apartment. The laundry room at the bottom of our common hallway flooded and mildewed the carpets, which began to smell pretty bad. After the smells got unusually overwhelming and after many many many complaints, management entered the unit down one floor and across the hall from our place (the one we walked past to get into our place every night). Turns out our neighbor had been stabbed, and died while trying to crawl for his front door. His body was literally melting into the carpet on the other side of the door. My poor roommate happened to be walking by the door while the homicide cops were there. The body had been removed, but he later said that it looked like someone had dropped a Jello mold on the carpet. **shudder** I will never forget that smell.