Discarded pool chemical harms city refuse workers

7/10/2004

Two Toledo city workers were hurt yesterday when they picked

up a trash bag that contained a chemical used to clean swimming

pools, authorities said.

Harry Hannah and Gary Shutte put the bag in their garbage

truck on Kershaw Avenue near West Sylvania Avenue about 7:55 a.m., Battalion Fire Chief Christine Davis said.

The workers were taken to St. Anne Mercy Hospital in minor

respiratory distress.

Their conditions were unavailable last night.

When the bag was compressed, liquid muriatic acid spilled into the truck and then onto the road. The city s environmental services department requested that private contractors clean up the spill.