Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Second death from Daikin America chemical exposure

Via WAFF, this odd story continues with a second death: 
DECATUR, Ala. (WAFF) - Another Daikin America employee has died after he was exposed to a dangerous chemical in July.

A source confirmed on Tuesday the death of Will Delashaw. Delashaw was in UAB’s ICU trying to recover from chemical exposure when he passed away.

Delashaw had a pending lawsuit against Daikin over that exposure incident filed just weeks ago. According to Delashsaw’s attorneys, he was exposed in the same incident that killed Daikin employee Wesley Rusk in August.

During the July 2021 incident, Delashaw, Rusk, and another employee were exposed to chemicals at Daikin in July. That next month, Rusk died from complications of exposure, and now only one of the employees from that incident is still alive. Delashaw’s attorney Kendall Dunson says Delashaw never learned what chemical he was exposed to, and that he was wearing PPE at the time of the exposure.
Sulfur dioxide was initially reported, but milkshake pointed out the problems with that theory. Here's hoping they get to the root of it...

3 comments:

  1. Just learning about this and my first thought is fluorine. Quick google search reveals the Decatur plant makes fluorochemicals - quite anecdotal but wanted to throw in another theory.

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  2. my guess - since they make fluoropolymers - is that there was accidental release of a large volume of gas containing perfluoroisobutylene (PFIB). It is a exceptionally nasty warfare agent - about order of magnitude more toxic than phosgene, odorless, with very delayed action (the pulmonary edema fully develops only after few days) and common gas masks do not protect against it. PFIB is notorious - it killed people in industrial accidents during manufacturing fluoropolymers before.

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  3. I once reported an employer to OSHA, didn't find much work after that.

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20