Man dies unclogging toilet!!!!!

Mike Barth

A local man died from chlorine fumes while trying to unclog his toilet. Here's the story:
Yesterday was the first day Windber Borough Police Sgt. Rick Skiles didn't feel like an elephant was sitting on his chest he said.
Skiles responded to a 911 hang-up call 3:38 Monday afternoon to find that 68 year old James Battiste had died from poison gas fumes.
"I could see him lying there," Skiles said. I rushed to open the door and gave him CPR, but, as soon as I opened the door, I went down like somebody had hit me with a baseball bat across the legs."
Skiles said the effect of his exposure to the fumes lasted for two days.
What it does is acts in your lungs like congestive heart failure," he said.
The Windber man had mixed Liquid Plumber and he Works in an attempt to unplug an upstairs toilet Monday afternoon, Skiles said."
The combination proved lethal. Windber Fire Department aired out the building and transported Battiste to Windber Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at the scene.
His reported cause of death is chlorine gas poisoning.
Skiles said it appeared that the fumes sickened Battiste, so he made it downstairs to the phone, dialed 911 and passed out in his home along Railroad Street. "He didn't get any farther than that," Skiles said.
Skiles said he has never seen, or inhaled, anything like that before.
"It's sad because it wasn't necessary. He could have called a plumber, read the labels. You can't mix that kind of stuff."********
This story appeared in our local paper The Somerset Daily American.
I've unclogged a lot of drains where customers have attempted various chemical remedies. I never gave too much thought about dying from the fumes....

Mike

Weezbo

This may suprise you......

one day while cleaning the bathroom tub up a bit i had some lysol ,lysterine ,soft scrub and some other everyday use kinda bathroom soap well i was amply applying elbow grease to the tub and started to get dizzy,...'i gess i Am getting older' thinks i...well i will bag this for a while go get some coffee...well i stand up spin a loop grab the door handel on the way down pull thye door open and sorta fall on the ground....later i call my dr. and hes not available so i call poison center...oh says the lady you gotta be care ful with mixing chemicals...house hold supplies thinks i nah...well.......may Be

Steve Ebels_2

Now we know

Why your mind works the way it does. (grin)

Weezbo

Maybe....*~/:)

Dale

Chlorine and ammonia

Chlorine clenser and ammonia cleaners mixed will release the gas. Want to see some really bad copper pipes, leave a can of kitchen clenser open under a sink cabinate with the doors closed.

Dean_7

fumes

This is unfortunately not an uncommon occurance. I see at least two or three cases a year in the ICU where I work. The last was a woman a couple of months ago who mixed liquid plumber, lysol toilet bowel cleaner, and chlorine bleech in an attempt to unclog her sink and get the rust stains out all at the same time. End result a 10 day stay in the ICU and 4 days on a ventalator. These products are highly corrosive, caustic, and reactive chemicals. Please read the directions and DON'T mix them.

BillW@honeywell

Ammonia and chlorine bleach...

will produce phosgene gas, just as deadly today as when it was used in World War One. The same applies for chlorine bleach and pool chemicals that also contain chlorine , which was used as a chemical warfare agent in World War One, too! Be careful what you mix together, and read labels carefully!