
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 1, 1994                   TAG: 9410030056
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHILHOWIE                                LENGTH: Short

WORKERS POISONED BY GAS LEAK

About 100 workers were taken to four hospitals Friday after becoming ill from carbon monoxide at a Tultex Corp. textile plant, officials said.

All of the workers were treated and released, said Janet Clements, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Services.

Clements said a tow motor on a rented forklift at the plant produced abnormally high levels of carbon monoxide. She said the gas got into the ventilation system and spread throughout the plant.

The reason the carbon monoxide level was so high was not immediately known, she said.

The workers - mostly women - suffered from shortness of breath, severe nausea and body chills.

``The girls started getting sick and started passing out,'' Georgie Blevins, a supervisor at the plant, told the Herald-Courier of Bristol. ``We started to tell everybody to get out of the plant.''

About 200 people were working at the plant when employees became ill shortly before noon. Rescue squads from Wythe, Washington and Smyth counties were summoned. When the ambulances were full, Smyth County school buses were brought in to transport the remaining patients.

Officials of the Virginia Department Labor and Industry are investigating.

Clements said Tultex brought in a company safety officer from its Martinsville office to investigate. The firm planned to have an air monitoring company check carbon monoxide levels before allowing workers to return, she said.

by CNB