54 people from the Monroe East Ward in Monroe Utah were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning today due to faulty heating in the chapel.

22 required hospitalization.

So far no fatalities.

Whew!

There’s a Monroe Ward in Snohomish county, Washington, some friends might still live-belong there…

That's really terrible. I have a carbon monoxide detector in my home. It just sits there reading zero all the time. Perhaps the Mormons should dip into the billion dollar trust fund to buy CO detectors for their facilities?

I had a carbon monoxide detector in my apartment in New York City. It would go off every time I opened a window. All the car exhaust trapped between the buildings would set it off.

I believe it. My allergist in NYC told me that on any given day, you are breathing in about 200 substances in the that it are best not to breathe in.

You just wait. Somehow this will become a faith promoting tale.

Of course. Either everybody survives (miracle) or some were needed on the other side, so they are in a better place. Ya can't lose.

I know that in out of the way places the church doesn't like putting money into maintainng chapels.
In Tuscaloosa our chappel was built in the mid 70s and for years the HVAC
system kept failing. The Church tried to keep it working with temp repairs with no success. Finally after about 5 years they decided just to replace 1 unit (there are two the same age.)
They let out a contract to the lowest
bidder. Not a good idea in Tuscaloosa
not using we'll known & established contractors. It ended up with the contractor reneging on the contract after getting the money. He left a mess on the yard.
I can't imagine the same thing happening with The Chevy Chase MD ward.

Was the work mostly about the a/c?


When I was living in Toledo ChurchCo had some renovation done to the chapel, a few guys from Utah did the work, I've forgotten what they did.

summer, you are absolutely correct: COJCOLDS should spend some of their cushy bank account to buy a simple $25 device that could protect the attendees at each and every LDS-owned building.

Seems to be that if carbon monoxide detectors are not included in local building Codes, they should at least be chosen as "worthwhile extras" by property owners who care.

How many carbon monoxide detectors can 100 billion dollars buy? No need we got the power of discernment.

"22 required hospitalization" I doubt the lds church will pay their medical bills. Even with good health insurance, there is probably a big co-payment.

It's not surprising if church officials didn't particularly notice illness in the ranks. The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include headache, dizziness, nausea, disorientation and loss of consciousness. With the usual general malaise in the ranks during the stultifying meetings, maybe nothing alarming was obvious at first*.

A little 4-year-old girl seems to have been the first one affected as she began to have breathing problems. Yikes, so scary. The fire department attended. She had apparently been ill recently so it was at first thought this was a continuation of that problem. Then an adult male reported headache and the fire department received a second call-out. When a family member subsequently called the fire service for a man in distress who had been at the same meeting, the building was then checked for CO. Emergency Services seem to have deduced the problem quickly, connecting all the calls and similar symptoms to the same site, so that is fortunate.

Re costs related to medical issues, the article says that the church statement says the church "... is working to support medical and other expenses...". The writer adds "for the people who were poisoned". That has got to be among the worst of all possible publicity for any organization - that members, including a young child, were "poisoned" in their facility.

At first read I got the impression the church was planning to pick up all related expenses for anyone affected but when you read it again it doesn't precisely state that. "Working to support medical and other expenses" - that's a bit of a strange roundabout way to word it. Why couldn't they just say we are paying all related expenses for anyone affected. It kind of leaves it open to be read either way - "working to support" could mean they will pay ... or not - they should absolutely look after everyone's bills but who knows??

I guess the first responders were fortunate in that even though they didn't pick up on the CO issue at the first call, or the second, they got it with the third call. Some people had returned home and called from there. A call-taker somewhere was on the ball, quickly realizing the common thread with the first three people who were significantly affected - that they had all been at the same building. Too, the first responders could have been in danger themselves. Also, many more people could have been very negatively affected if there had been much of a delay in determining what the problem was.

It's never a good day for a church when 54 attendees in one meeting reported symptoms and 49 were found to have elevated levels of CO. The absolute least they should do is pick up all medical and other related expenses for their members/visitors (if any of the latter).

And install a CO monitor, tout de suite.


Here's a brief article about the incident:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/people-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-mormon-church-utah-rcna131819


*Please excuse my nurse's humour. I couldn't resist with this one, as the meetings are so awfully boring and sleep-inducing, as we know from sad experience. Obviously, the situation itself isn't humourous, especially for those affected.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2024 08:47PM by Nightingale.

Thank you for the link to the news article.

I found out from a friend involved in the transportation of some of the victims.

Sure - any time. There were quite a few articles to choose from. Pretty bad publicity for the church. I'm glad everybody ended up OK. Glad your friend and all the other responders weren't adversely affected.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2024 10:02PM by Nightingale.

That's sad.

I always got a little sleepy during sacrament meeting. I wonder if a lot of people secretly were thinking, "I always feel like this in sacrament meeting."

It's a good thing somebody noticed.

I think the church is looking for member donations. They do not like paying for anything.

I can imagine the church's risk management subpoenaing members' medical records to rationalize negligence. -This member was hospitalized for pneumonia. This member has chronic asthma.

Years ago, a bunch of my coworkers were injured when a poorly hanging painting of a thing came crashing down. Risk management arrived and found that it was common knowledge that the painting looked like it might fall. RM concluded that employees should have known better than to stand near a known danger. The corp offered half of their medical injuries- one had preexisting shoulder injury. Some begrudgingly accepted the 50% offer and they retained their positions. Others sued and won a nice payout, which was contested and ultimately lost. Furthermore, they were reassigned (demoted) and lost their positions (with union representation).

I feel for those who were poisoned.

Undetectable invisible tasteless odorless poisons that can hurt you when inside Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hall.

Say it ain't so!

Then of course, there is always the scant chance of maybe a danger of being exposed to carbon monoxide, too.

When the church had paid custodians, I always thought the church was cutting corners with an emphasis on using less bleach and cleaning agents. In my ward, more parents who were becoming concerned about the effects of harsh chemicals were expressing their concerns to the leaders. I think the church was more than excited to ask the janitors to use very little in their mops and buckets. Hence, some church buildings developed a pungent musk odor or funk.

One sister, who was briefly assigned to my dad to home teach, had allergies to deodorants, colognes and perfumes (soap too!). To her credit, she gave us a 3 page report of what she could and could not tolerate. Basically, she was asking us not to bathe or shower before visiting. I'm sorry to say that I loathed going to her home because she bathed once a week using natural odorless products- she smelled bad which wasn't helping her find a romantic partner (she was attractive lady in her early 30s). I don't think she garnered many second dates.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2024 06:59AM by messygoop.

A follow up to original story. Sister PHIL said she saw what looked like a propane space heater in another article about it. I wonder if their
HVAC system was on the fritz and had to use propane space heaters in order to have services. Those type of heaters are non vented and you have to be very careful with them.

Yikes

Apparently, the lawsuits surrounding the incident in 2019 weren't enough to get them to require carbon monoxide detectors.
https://www.abc4.com/news/top-stories/eight-transported-for-medical-treatment-after-carbon-monoxide-found-in-provo-church/

This was in the chapel right next to the Provo MTC. Last year, I happened to be talking to someone who lived in that ward and she brought up the incident. It was considerably worse than I had ever heard. There were a whole group of teenage girls who suffered permanent damage whose lives will never be the same.

The circumstances are eerily similar.

"This PROVES Russell Nelson IS a prophet!  Had our dear prophet not changed to two-hour church meetings, ALL of us in the congregation - I repeat - ALL of us would have DIED!!  As God is my witness, I will NEVER miss another life-saving meeting for the rest of my life!"

                

Yes, while I mock, there is at least one FB post extolling the event as faith-promoting.  I didn't copy it, word for word...



In a comment on Reddit regarding the praise given to Jesus and his holy carbon monoxide, mention was made of a similiar event in 2019, in Provo.


Best comment on Reddit, so far:

"When Gaslighting doesn't work. use ACTUAL GAS!"

elderolddog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As God is my
> witness, I will NEVER miss another life-saving
> meeting for the rest of my life!"

Shades of Scarlett O'Hara!


> Best comment on Reddit, so far:

> "When Gaslighting doesn't work. use ACTUAL GAS!"

Morgue humour - the type nurses of my acquaintance engage in. Funny yet wincey all at the same time.

https://kutv.com/news/local/at-least-60-sickened-by-carbon-monoxide-at-lds-church-some-may-suffer-long-term?fbclid=IwAR0oCz9BGqxxrtpoblV5_kYdLksCMDoUwWy3j69eKPZr4Zh3Q1rGe46pi9Q_aem_AbMTEmxdZdaapxuYDsksUih_P9CyrY-XT9V1geI3knKXQR3TlpA2uRZHqfThZeZoSrE&mibextid=Zxz2cZ


I am in awe of this particular response, which is apparently a cure all, no matter what the problem:

"...We continue to pray for their well-being.”

I checked laws in MN, the lack of a functioning CO detector violates our state laws. All public building here require them.

sbg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I checked laws in MN, the lack of a functioning CO
> detector violates our state laws. All public
> building here require them.

They should get a significant fine. Seriously reckless.

No one has pointed out the most shocking part of this story: 54 people actually showed up!

Most exciting thing that has ever happened in the ward in decades!

Speaking CO detectors, our gas fired water heater failed a couple years ago.

Part of the county's permitting requirements was that CO detectors needed to installed near the heater and on every floor of the house.

Got them through mail order, they weren't very expensive.

That's how I looked at it. It's a modest expense to potentially save your life or that of a loved one.

The way things are going they will also need a Carbon Dioxide detector, to meet those 2030 targets.

Ah yes, "2030" again: that bete noir of the talk radio crowd.

Don't worry. Two months ago it was the War on Cash, now it's the conspiratorial numerology of 2030, and in a month's time it'll be something altogether different.

Do you ever like to eat crab? The Alaskan snow crab season has just been cancelled for the second year in a row due to warming waters in the Bering Sea. "It is a canary in a coal mine for other species that need cold water." Many fishermen in Alaska are now left without sufficient work to support their families.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/alaskas-snow-crab-season-canceled-for-second-year-in-a-row/ar-AA1mu2bV

A lot of people *don't* care until the consequences land right on their doorsteps. Even then they may not care. *shrug*

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do you ever like to eat crab? The Alaskan snow
> crab season has just been cancelled for the second
> year in a row due to warming waters in the Bering
> Sea. "It is a canary in a coal mine for other
> species that need cold water." Many fishermen in
> Alaska are now left without sufficient work to
> support their families.
>
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/alaskas-snow-cra
> b-season-canceled-for-second-year-in-a-row/ar-AA1m
> u2bV
>
> A lot of people *don't* care until the
> consequences land right on their doorsteps. Even
> then they may not care. *shrug*

At the laat COP summit, most attendees flew in by private jet, and some conducted oil deals in the background. These are the same people who want to lower your living standards. Let's see them lead by example.

Just because a crisis is real doesn't mean all of the supposed solutions are effective or equitable. The main polluters are factories and powerplants which the general populace don't control.

Twenty years ago the "problem" was terrorism. Real problem, unreal solution. A lot of civil liberties were stripped from citizens in ways that did not solve the problem in hand.

I think it would be a step forward just to get most people to acknowledge that the crisis is real. IMO all must do their fair share.