Workers sue after Huddersfield hospital site boiler gas leak

Feb 24 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

FOUR workers were allegedly poisoned by carbon monoxide gas from a faulty boiler while they were at work in Huddersfield.

Paul Wainwright, Richard McKernan, Tony Deakin and Michael Wainwright ended up in Huddersfield Royal Infirmary – ironically after working on a project for the health trust which runs it.

The men were stripping asbestos at Acre Mills at Acre Street, Lindley, when they say they were poisoned by a leaky gas boiler.

After work, each of the men, who are all from Sheffield, showered in a decontamination unit designed to protect them from inhaling asbestos dust which can lead to fatal lung cancer.

But lawyers for the men claim as they left the shower, heated by a gas boiler, they immediately began to feel ill and were rushed to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary with suspected poisoning.

Mr McKernan said: “When we arrived at the hospital they rushed us straight through A&E and put us all on oxygen and a heart monitor.

“After we had recovered, the doctor told me that the level of carbon monoxide in my bloodstream had been at 27%, when 35% is critical and 40% fatal.

“We usually spend around 15 minutes in the decontamination unit, but because we had to go through one at a time we were only four or five minutes each to save others from waiting outside.”