NASSCO: 20 Workers Sent to Hospitals : 20 on Nassco Breathing System Hit With Illness

Twenty men breathing through gas masks while spray-painting a cargo ship at National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. were taken to hospitals Friday after experiencing breathing difficulties that caused several of them to vomit and pass out.

Three of the men remained hospitalized Friday night. Two had been reported in unstable condition in the early evening, but their conditions later improved to satisfactory, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Some officials said they suspected that some sort of toxic gas may have made its way into the workers’ respirators, which were hooked by hoses to a common, bottled air supply.

Others, however, speculated that the men were overcome by hypoxia --oxygen starvation--which would result if there was a malfunction in their respirator system.

Initial testing by the company found no traces of toxic fumes in the air supply, and hospitals reported finding no traces of toxic substances in the workers’ blood, said Fred N. Hallett, vice president of finance and public relations for Nassco. The company was probing the possibility that excess nitrogen had entered the air supply.

The San Diego County Health Department Hazardous Team was investigating the incident.

Hallett said that the workers were outside when stricken, spray-painting the helicopter deck and the deck just below it aboard the newly outfitted cargo ship, the Maj. Stephen W. Pless. Those on the upper deck apparently were the most seriously affected.

One of them, Roberto Flores, 27, said he smelled nothing unusual, but suddenly felt dizzy. “I wanted to throw up,” Flores said. “I looked around and there were some guys who were passing out.”

Below the helicopter deck, Idalmiro DaRosa, 26, heard a co-worker shout, “Get out of there!”

“The guy yelled that the air was no good and then I saw some friends go down,” DaRosa said. “So we took off our masks and got out of there. I never felt nothing, but they took me to the hospital to do tests anyway.”

Those affected complained of nausea, shortness of breath and respiratory discomfort.

Denis McNeill, a San Diego Fire Department spokesman, said one of the men suffered neck and back injuries when he fell an undetermined distance after being overcome. The identity of that man could not immediately be determined.

Sixteen of the men were in “various stages of consciousness” and were taken to Nassco’s resident medical clinic before being transported to San Diego hospitals, Hallett said. The remaining five workers “walked up to our clinic under their own power and complained of minor discomfort, so they were taken to the hospital as a precaution,” he noted.

Six workers were transported to Mercy Hospital, six to UC San Diego Medical Center, five to Physician’s & Surgeon’s Hospital, and three to Paradise Valley Hospital.

Of the three who required hospitalization, two were admitted to Physician’s & Surgeon’s Hospital. On Friday afternoon, Indalicia Parra and Jorge Mendoza were described by nursing director Theresa Kleinpeter as being in “unstable condition and might be here more than one night.” The hospital was planning to hold them overnight for observation.

Of the six workers taken to Mercy Hospital, one was kept Friday night for observation. A Mercy spokesman identified him as John Spencley, 36, of San Diego. Spencley was alert and reported to be in satisfactory condition.

Hallett said industrial accidents have been relatively rare at Nassco’s Logan Heights shipyard.