Comments from the forums

Over the years there have been a few discussions of the situation these people are in and I would like to address some of the valid points and questions people have made. This post is for mainly for people in the aviation industry but I’m sure most anyone can understand what went on.

The employees we are talking about and who are now disabled due to chemical poisoning, worked in various trades within aircraft maintenance. Yes it is part of the job to be working with chemicals almost every day, everyone in the business knows or should know this. The company where these people were working at had MSDS sheets for around 650 products at the time.

Yes, personal protection is your responsibility, no one has ever disputed that. If you are working with MEK, you wear a mask and safety gear. Again it’s just part of the job and now it’s law, more on that later.

No one has ever disputed that an individual’s previous personal chemical exposures could or may be a factor in this mess. These are all common sense issues that are being used to delay a resolution to this crisis, and yes it is a crisis as no one who should be, is dealing with it.

Yes the painters at the company did the best they could under the circumstances with tenting, venting and warning signs etc. Most of the large paint work took place on weekends and graveyards. You should be aware that about half the people who worked these shifts in 2002 are now either sick to some degree or permanently disabled.

Now the reality check. The Cascade Aerospace hanger is a pressurized building and under a constant negative pressure at all times. Even with the tenting and venting done by the painters; all the fumes, dust and crud could not be physically moved out of the building without generating a hurricane force airflow. It is simple grade eight physics.

There is a variable percentage of makeup air introduced to the hanger. However, the intake and exhaust vents for the fresh air are both located close together near the peak of the roof. Back to grade eight physics, with a system like this the only place in the hanger that can get fresh air is at the roof beam level, sixty-seventy feet above the heads of everyone on the floor. The majority the fumes and toxic crud used in that hanger, stay in that hanger.

When talking about this mess most conversations only mention the painting. The fact is, it is only one part of the problem. That hanger is a pressure vessel, so for example if you or buddy use MEK or any other toxic treat, the fumes once again, cannot leave the building. Now you have to think about the dozen other people doing the same thing on the same project, then multiply this by eight aircraft in the hanger. You get the idea, throw in a paint job and it turns into an immune system overload for the employees, which many never recovered from.

More to come.