Fumes From Rotting Food in Office Fridge makes 28 Sick 7 Sent to Hospital

SuziQ

Former Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2007
Messages
39,600
Reaction score
51,976
Hmmmm, I can see this ending up as an episode of "The Office". I bet alot of us have an office fridge story or two to tell. The only way I've ever seen the office fridge handled well is a former boss had the rule that if it was in the fridge after 3pm on Friday, it went into the trash. And she didn't care how expensive that piece of Tupperware was. lol.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519979,00.html
Fumes From Rotting Food in Office Fridge Send 7 to Hospital

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. (more at link)
 
This is why mixing cleaners is so dangerous. Hopefully the people who were affected didn't become too ill.
 
Most places I've worked had this issue come up.

5 p.m. Friday toss-outs, which caused countless problems because the night crew came to work at 3, and those who wanted to bring food that had to go in the fridge had to make a point of being there to hold on to while the fridge was cleaned.

It sure was irritating, all because a few people never cleaned up after themselves.

At another place I worked we used to giggle at the increasingly nasty messages taped to the fridge door, the microwave door (boy did that get gross) about taking stuff home.
 
This is a huge issue at my office. It has reached a point of ridiculousness. Every Friday EVERYTHING is thrown out - including condiments like mustard and ketchup. It is so wasteful and unnecessary. Sure, I understand throwing out leftovers and produce that will rot but ketchup?

I did come across moldy butter a few weeks ago. I didn't know butter got moldy.
 
Was it the rotten food or the cleaning chemicals or a combination of both? Taking the rotten food to a conference room wasn't a good idea, take it out to the dumpster pronto.

A suggestion for gaia to take to work. Label the condiments for the date opened. Then that way they can be kept and thrown away when they get too old. I would suggest what we did in the restaurant industry but it's sometimes too hard for people that aren't in that industry to be able to calculate when something goes bad or not. LOL :) Just easier to date it when it was opened.

My GMother mixed bleach and ammonia and almost killed herself. A story that was legend in my family before her death and told to everyone, much to her chagrin, at every single family gathering that I could remember.

I had a co-worker that LOVED bleach. She would use a freakin gallon of the stuff in the kitchen drains and etc...after working with her for so long, I can't bear the smell of bleach, it turns my stomach and irritates my sinuses. I still use it, but only in the recommended strengths for disinfection.

Funny story thanks for posting Suzi, I needed a chuckle today :)
 
Another one that happens is the lunch eating ghost. I was always tempted to leave something yummy looking but load it down with Allum or something. lol.
 
I once worked for a large investment firm that not only refused to provide a fridge, they banned popcorn microwaving. Evidently the fire dept got tired of being called out for popcorn fires and started charging a fee.
 
This is kind of funny. The workplace fridge is a constant source of irritation. I managed a reputable LASIK center and every Friday that fridge had to be completely cleaned out. If someone wanted to take the time to label stuff, OK but I hadn't the time. It just all went in one fell swoop.

I had to put up pictures on the wall and microwave NO POPCORN and NO FISH. Some of our research staff were from China and had no idea that the smell of microwaving leftover fish was not the best thing for our patients to smell. It just eeked into every corner of the suite and I had to put a stop to it.

We also had patients waiting for surgery who were not supposed to eat or drink past the prior midnight - so having them smell popcorn - another smell that wafts everywhere - was especially cruel I thought.

I was sometimes unpopular, but I was trying to put the customers first.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
120
Guests online
2,575
Total visitors
2,695

Forum statistics

Threads
590,018
Messages
17,929,049
Members
228,038
Latest member
shmoozie
Back
Top