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Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Worker dies; 4 other men being treated: cause unknown
A workers of an industrial firm in San Remigio, Cebu died while four of his companions were admitted in a hospital in Cebu City last Dec. 18, but what caused the death and ailments has yet to be ascertained.
The company engaged in dismantling used batteries, raising suspicions that the incident was a case of lead poisoning.
But in an autopsy, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) medico legal officer Dr. Gil Macato found no traces of lead from the tissues and blood samples of fatality Rio Tagulinao, 23.
The incident happened last Dec. 18 yet, but firm officials reported about the incident only last Dec. 24, when the firm’s caretaker Gregorio Ursal told the police about it.
Sun.Star Cebu contacted Cebu Velez Hospital where the four other victims are treated, but the nurses declined to give details.
Officials of the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit 7 and Provincial Board environment committee chairman Victor Maambong Jr. could not confirm if there was lead poisoning that happened at Michael Industries in Barangay Maño in San Remigio.
Years
Maambong said an epidemiologist is needed to determine what killed Tagulinao and what happened to Rudy Orangcaya; Rey Tores, of Sultan Kudarat; and brothers Gohen and Rolan Blo, of Cotabato City.
The NBI autopsy report showed that Tagulinao died of heart failure, liver enlargement and congenital anomaly of the colon.
Macato said it takes years before lead kills a person. Tagulinao was working only for a year with Michael Industries when he died.
Macato said lead poisoning attacks the nervous system and causes the victim to suffer encephalitis.
Two days before he died, Tagulinao complained of a tissue that had grown in his left foot.
Ursal told the police that he tried to convince Tagulinao to undergo surgery. Tagulinao refused because he did not have money for the doctors and medicine.
In the morning of Dec. 18, his fellow workers woke up to see him dead.
Ursal told San Remigio police investigator Edgardo Toring that before noon, Tagulinao was brought to a funeral parlor in Cebu City with Orangcaya, Torres and the Blo brothers escorting his body.
Equipment
The next morning, the four were taken to the hospital.
Michael Industries bought used batteries and dismantle these to rid them of carbon. The company reportedly lacks the proper equipment in handling the toxic materials.
Maambong said he only knew about Michael Industries only after he learned of the incident last Sunday.
He said he will coordinate with the PB health committee chairperson Estrella Yapha in investigating the incident.
“I will ascertain if the firm has everything required by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Yapha will handle the health aspect of the case,” he told Sun.Star Cebu. (AIV)
(December 27, 2005 issue)
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