Teen overcome by fumes, dies at recycling plant

[Liberal_in_LA]

Source: LA Times

Federal and state officials are investigating the death of a teenager who was overcome by fumes in a tunnel at a Kern County recycling plant where he worked.

Armando Ramirez, 16, was killed late Wednesday morning as he was cleaning the inside of a drain pipe. His brother, Eladio Ramirez, 22, was critically injured after trying to rescue him, said Kern County Fire Department Capt. Joaquin Gaeta.

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The brothers were found unconscious about 7 feet down a shaft at the Community Recycling Center in Lamont, just southeast of Bakersfield, Gaeta said.

The tunnel tested positive for high levels of hydrogen sulfide, a gas released during composting that can damage the brain and central nervous system.

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Gaeta said Armando used a fake I.D. to get work at the plant.

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/teen-overcome-by-fumes-dies-at-recycling-plant.html

[pnwmom]

1. OMG. That poor family. n/t

[KT2000]

2. They had asked for masks

that would protect them from the fumes but as is the common response - they were given only paper masks for dust.
This is the result of chemical company efforts to downplay and deny toxicity. It has created a laissez faire attitude regarding all exposures. People who want to protect themselves are said to have "chemophobia" a made up term to silence people.

Take a look at most manicure salons and you will see the women wearing paper dust masks. They are not being protected from the neurotoxic fumes they are exposed to all day. They will be very sick with neurological damage in their midlife.

[truedelphi]

5. My mother died of Parkinson's

After she retired, she and a friend began a nail salon.

I was proud of her, but then when I realized how awful the fumes were, I tried to interest her in the type of equipment that would have helped protect her and the other worker, who was a close friend of hers.

The two women didn't want the expense involved, some four to six thousand bucks. (they could have afforded it, unlike some people of very low incomes who just don't have the money.)

Her friend started in with using that word regarding me. I was chemical-phobic.

Both of them would tell me that none of the products they were using were unsafe - after all, would our government allow unsafe chems to be bought over the counter?

[KT2000]

10. EEEEEK!! - exactly!

That is so sad. If they (the powers that be) would just allow decent education and a healthy respect for the damage that can ocur, so many would not be sick. I just don't get it.
I'm sorry about you mother. A dear friend had that and it is not a nice disease at all.

[truedelphi]

20. What is even worse - there is now a new "outrageous" and glorious

Way of having your nails done - it involves an entire chemical procedure with special drying methods. I cannot even imagine the type of lacquer that this treatment involves and of course, Oprah's Magazine was promoting it.

It is more costly and time consuming than the previous methods.

And although the one article I read talks about the fumes being a bit heavier than in the conventional treatment - you are only doing the procedure for special events, so - SO WHAT! Suck it up, ladies to look even more glam.

And no mention in the article, that while the proud wearer of this treatment might have these fumes only once in a while, the workers will experience them every day.

There are times when I really detest fashion.

[KT2000]

21. Here is one for you

A Washington State committee on indoor air quality once looked into the case of a woman who took her newborn into a nail salon while she had her nails done. That evening the baby started having seizures and was rushed to the emergency room. They measured high levels of the chemicals used in the nail salon in the baby's blood. The committee did not do anything with the knowledge they had - just let things go as they had been. The committee members were professors from the U of WA and doctors and someone to represent the public. She could not get them to take action.

I detest fashion too - don't even get me started on the SHOES!!!

[jmowreader]

26. The dust masks aren't to protect them from the fumes

It's for protection from airborne dusts--there is a LOT of it produced in various nail procedures.

The only thing that'll protect a nail tech from neurotoxic fumes is updraft ventilation, and lots of it--which the cheap nail salons can't afford.

[elfin]

3. May have been temp workers - NO benefits

My son had a temp job during the last recession as a teen at a noxious fumes emitting facility for a short time - until his Dad and I ascertained the nature of his work there. He needed the $ -- but we needed him alive. Supposedly the business "passed" in that area. We did not trust the company. It took a while, but he found a safer job, which eventually led to full time employment.

This is horrific and a sad comment on the times

[sce56]

6. When ever you hear of some one working at a place that has problems ask them what kind of training

On site safety are they getting that will usually trigger a reaction from the employer if it is a legit operation you'll get straight answers if not then they will let them go then you call OSHA and report them!

[lunasun]

11. alot of times they' pass' becuz they get tipped off the EPA or OSHA is coming

and stop or slow down the really bad stuf as is the case where I worked years ago on 3rd shift.
Red emergency lights went off and the mangers came out and said we gotta clean up OSHA is coming in the morning!
The shift was stopped and everyone told to work on 'clean up' which was really 'hide it'
Forklifts came out of nowhere and went everywhere and moved everything around.
They covered up everything and took away others and the place looked and smelled completely different from the norm.
When I came back the next night it was back to bizness as usual....guess they came got the pass grade and could go back to toxic mess. You were right to not trust the company and are not chemophobic.

I got out after I saved enough money that I could and never had any health trouble but this is when you could also smoke @ work and wonder about the smokers or I guess anyone predisposed or working at those jobs a long time .

[sce56]

4. Clear violation of CalOSHA!

Un trained underage workers in a confined space with out proper PPE, no monitoring of air for combustibles/toxic air no confined space permit etc etc. And they complain the govt regulates too much this is why we have all of those regs to keep these events from happening!

[XemaSab]

29. Exactly

I was flashing back to HAZWOPR when I read the OP.

[DeSwiss]

7. K&R n/t

[Lint Head]

8. And the fucking GOP want to get rid of rhe EPA!

[24601]

16. Last time I looked both the Federal Exec Branch and California

were bring run by Obama & Brown. Thanks for clarifying that they are GOP - and that Democrats have no responsibility or accountability here.

[sce56]

17. Run by but the EPA & OSHA are funded by Congress and they are budget cutting those.

And they also were started by that liberal Nixon.

[Doremus]

9. But, but, but I thought companies made sure there weren't any dangerous conditions for workers now.

I mean, the days of needing unions to help make workplaces safer are over, right? Rightwingers keep saying so!

:sarcasm:

[Scruffy1]

24. Someone should be convicted.

I am not a lawyer, but to me it looks like willful criminal negligence since the law was not followed.

[alp227]

12. fake ID? Probably an illegal immigrant.

Geez, that's why employers need to use E-VERIFY and need to be held responsible for such negligence like this!

[ChandlerJr]

13. Maybe it was just to get past the age requirement, and

SACRAMENTO—California has become the seventh state to prohibit credit checks in making employment decisions with legislation Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law.

Also this week, Gov. Brown signed into law another bill that prohibits federal E-Verify mandates in California.

http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20111011/NEWS07/111019976#

[alp227]

19. Why would a 16yo want to work there

Because Mcdonalds wasnt hiring?

[lunasun]

25. thats the ticket the victim was the problem.....

[jmowreader]

30. Or because it pays better than McDonalds

[octothorpe]

18. Or age, since he was only 16...

E-Verify would have detected that thought, aye?

[nomorenomore08]

22. Yeah, with a name like Ramirez, he'd have to be, right???

:sarcasm:

Not that it would make any difference if he were. He would still deserve the same basic protections as any other worker.

[Scruffy1]

23. No human being is illegal.

I get so damn tired of the right wing "illegal alien" racists shit being remouthed by liberals. There are a whole lot of workers who don't have or can't get documentation. This does not make them criminals.

[truthisfreedom]

14. Hydrogen sulfide?

Isn't that the gas that smells like rotten eggs? How could they even bear to be in there at all?

[hunter]

15. You can't smell hydrogen sulfide at high concentrations.

It deadens the sense of smell.

It's also heavier than air, so it collects in low places.

This is a classic hydrogen sulfide accident.

The company was breaking the law in a number of ways.

[wordpix]

27. "the company had no history of violations, but...had broken a few land use rules in the past."

snip: Cal-OSHA spokeswoman Erik Monterroza said the company had no history of violations, but county officials told the Bakersfield Californian the plant had broken a few land use rules in the past.

:shrug: Breaking "a few" land use rules aren't violations? :grr:

If you break land use rules, you're breaking land use regs, and that is violating the regs. But let's not call the widdle company that just killed this teenager a violator of regs, just like we avoided that for BP when it had 100's of violations before the Horizon blowout.

[burrowowl]

28. Where in the hell is OSHA!?

What the hell! Safety regulations anyone!