JURY at Dublin Coroner's Court yesterday called for more stringent controls on the labelling, handling and management of dangerous chemicals, following an accidental emission of chlorine gas at a swimming pool in Ballyfermot, Dublin.
The jury's recommendation was made at the inquest into the death in September 1994, of a pool inspector, Mr Thomas O'Neill (49), of Ceannts Fort, Mount Brown, Dublin. He suffered a stroke on the day that the Sean Dunne Memorial Pool in Ballyfermot was evacuated after an emission of chlorine in November 1992.
Mr Martin McDonagh, a Dublin Corporation superintendent at the pool, said that he had ordered sodium hypochloride, the industrial equivalent of domestic bleach.
When the fluid was being pumped into the tank he noticed that the tank was expanding and realised that the wrong chemical, sulphuric acid, was being pumped in. He saw a green/yellow haze, which was chlorine, and evacuated the building.
Prof Michael Cullen, a consultant endocrinologist at St James's Hospital in Dublin, said he did not believe gas inhalation played a role in Mr O'Neill's stroke, but that the stress of the incident "set the scene" for it.
Giving its verdict, the jury said: "We recognise that the stress of events did contribute to the stroke."