THOUSAND OAKS : Nauseating Odor Sends 3 to Hospital
Owners and employees of a beauty salon, pet store and four other Thousand Oaks shops were evacuated for about two hours Monday after a noxious odor sent two beauticians and an infant to the hospital.
Workers on the northwest corner of Janss Mall at Hillcrest Drive and Moorpark Road said a nauseating odor has disrupted their businesses for at least a year.
Bertha Whitemore, Peggy Varnes and Varnes’ 6-month-old baby were treated and released at Los Robles Regional Medical Center after they reported nausea, dizziness and difficulty breathing.
But the Ventura County Fire Department and Ventura County Environmental Health Department could detect no odor and no source of one Monday, said Dean Dysart, captain of the Fire Department’s hazardous materials unit.
It is possible that any vapor could have evaporated by about 1 p.m., when environmental health workers inspected the property, or by 3 p.m., when Fire Department crews arrived, Dysart said.
Dysart said he ruled out a nearby dry-cleaning plant as the source of the odor.
Perchloroethylene, a dry-cleaning fluid that produces an ether-like smell and the only one used by Village Cleaners, should not be hazardous if it is used correctly, Dysart said.
The business appeared to be in compliance, he said.
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