Four workers suffered accidental carbon monoxide poisoning (CO) when three of them were cleaning drains using a fuel-powered drain cleaner in a grease interceptor room in a hotel in Nape on Friday, the Health Bureau (SSM) has announced.
According to an SSM statement on Saturday, the case occurred in a staff area of a “large” hotel resort on Avenida Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (孫逸仙大馬路) in Nape. The statement identified the four workers as local men aged between 31 and 58. Three of them are workers in the hotel’s engineering department, while the other is a staff member from another department.
According to the statement, the three engineering department workers started to clean drains at 2:30 p.m. on Friday in a grease interceptor room, which is equipped with air conditioning and ventilation systems, but its door was often closed when staff members were working there.
During the cleaning process, the statement said, the three workers used a fuel-powered drain cleaning machine, which generates smoke when it has been operating, for 10 to 15 minutes.
At 3:30 p.m., one of the three workers suddenly felt dizzy and collapsed to the ground, shortly after which the other two workers came down with dizziness and palpitations.
Later, the statement said, a staff member from another department entered the room in an attempt to help the three workers, but he then also felt dizzy. Consequently, he called an ambulance, which rushed him and the three others to the private Kiang Wu Hospital for emergency treatment.
According to the statement, the four men were diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning and were then hospitalised for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).
All of them were in a stable condition at the time of Saturday’s statement.
The Health Bureau preliminarily concluded that the incident was caused by poor ventilation during the use of combustion equipment, allowing toxic gas to accumulate, the statement said.
Image courtesy of US Verywell Health
