Unknown perfume empties bank and hospitalizes 34

I’ve known some pretty strong perfumes that have made me want to run in the opposite direction but I have yet to suffer as the employees at the Fort Worth branch of the Bank of America when two employees reported feeling sick and dizzy.

Thinking that maybe there had been a carbon monoxide leak the bank called emergency crews and then evacuated the bank. A total of 12 people were taken to hospital while 22 others made their own way there for treatment and a 110 were treated on scene. The only thing was there was no leak but instead it turns out that the original two employees were standing too close to someone else as they squirted themselves with perfume.

Lt Kent Worley of Fort Worth Fire Department said: “Two employees reported some dizziness in close association with someone spraying on some perfume.”

He said that when the two reported being dizzy to a supervisor, “an announcement was made over the building’s PA system saying that anyone feeling these symptoms should exit the building to an outside location.”

Subsequently, he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, many people left the building, but many others continued working “with no ill effect.”

“We called a [hazardous materials] unit to the scene but they didn’t detect anything on their air monitoring unit,” he said.

“That air monitoring unit can detect carbon monoxide and several other chemicals and products that can be in the air. But they found nothing that would have caused people to get sick.”

Lt Worley suggested the situation escalated because of ‘psychosomatic behaviour’, or what medical experts often refer to as ‘contagious fear’.

Source: SkyNews :: Eau No! Perfume Spray Sparks Panic At Bank

So you know what to do the next time you want the afternoon off work, right?

picture courtesy of Kelly Chin, Star-Telegram