600 garment staff taken ill

BANGALORE: The New Year began on an ominous note for a garment factory’s workers in Bommasandra in the form of gastro-enteritis, mild anxiety and nausea. Nearly 600 workers of the unit rushed in anxiety to four hospitals in the area on Friday morning, many complaining of vomiting, diarrhoea and dizziness and others of nausea, causing frenzy in the locality.
The workers were rushed to Narayana Hrudayalaya, Sparsh and Sri Venkateshwara hospitals, and later Narayana Multispeciality Hospital in Health City.
While they were not very clear why they fell sick and factory officials hinted that water contamination in the area may have been the cause, doctors said about 10% (50-60 workers) had been afflicted with gastro-enteritis while the rest experienced minor anxiety and nausea, seeing other workers suffering. They said the gastro problem could have resulted from contaminated food or water, a theory factory officials rejected.
Narayana Hrudayalaya officials said at 7.30 pm, eight workers were in the ICU, 46 still in hospital while 520 workers had been discharged after symptomatic treatment.
WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED?
It began at 8.45 am in front of the garment factory — Page Industries Ltd, makers of ‘Jockey’ brand of garments — in Bommasandra Industrial Area. The garment factory has several units in the city and the one in Bommasandra has over 1,500 employees working the general shift from 9 am to 5.30 pm. The workers, most of them from neighbouring localities, began trickling into the factory as usual early on Friday. At first, a few women collapsed near the factory gates, vomiting, and soon other workers started complaining about nausea and dizziness.
Factory officials immediately took the first batch of 30 sick people to neighbouring hospitals. By 10 am, many more were complaining of the same problems and the situation turned chaotic. Several ambulances of all hospitals were busy ferrying workers from the factory to hospitals.
Anxious family members ran helter-skelter to the hospitals, and factory officials, who realized the gravity of the situation, later ferried the workers to Narayana Multispeciality Hospital in Health City.
Hospital authorities immediately started diagnosing the patients based on their symptoms. Most of them were women, led by anxious co-workers and family.
WHAT CAUSED IT?
Several theories like food poisoning, gas leakage and gastro-enteritis, and even a cake being distributed at the factory, were floated as the cause.
Factory unit manager Chandregowda N M dismissed claims of both a gas leakage or food poisoning by a cake distributed to the workers. He said: “First of all, ours is a stitching unit and not a washing unit. We don’t use any chemicals or any kind of gas, so there is no question of gas leakage. No cake or sweet was distributed to the workers either.’’
(With additional reporting by Nirmala M Nagaraj)