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Margaret Townsend knows well the risk of carbon monoxide overexposure on a jobsite. Last month, 23 Townsend Farms employees became ill after one began using a gas-powered pressure washer to clean a refrigerated room at the Fairview business’ fruit processing plant.

Many workers were rushed to a hospital; one, according to the , spent days in a cleansing chamber to rid his body of the chemical (Townsend said he was hospitalized for only one day).

鈥淚t was one person’s stupidity,鈥� Townsend said. 鈥淲e teach them and teach them again not to use any carbon monoxide inside a building or closed areas 鈥� they don’t, and they’re not allowed to.鈥�

The incident was one of several on jobsites in the Portland-metro area in July that involved carbon monoxide poisoning. Two, including the one at Townsend Farms, involved multiple workers who were exposed excessively to the toxic gas.

Oregon OSHA officials, who are investigating the incidents to find out whether the employers failed to meet safety regulations, are touting the precautions that should be taken on jobsites.

鈥淲e just want to really draw awareness to that this is an issue and the risk is always there,鈥� said Melanie Mesaros, public information officer for Oregon OSHA. 鈥淎nd just the fact that we had so many cases in a short period of time 鈥� we just want employers to be thinking about this risk.鈥�

The other two cases happened the day after the Townsend Farms incident. In one, construction workers used a gas-powered saw and other internal combustion engines in a warehouse; the building was evacuated by Oregon OSHA officials before anyone had to be taken to a hospital, Mesaros said.

In the second incident, a worker with Washougal, Wash.-based used a gas-powered saw in a manhole and lost consciousness as a result.

Each incident could have been prevented if proper precautions had been taken, Mesaros said. She noted that employees should be informed of the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as light-headedness, vomiting, collapse and muscle weakness. In the Townsend Farms incident, workers experienced some of these symptoms, but did not realize that carbon monoxide was to blame, she said.

Another key step, Mesaros said, is to ensure proper ventilation and to use natural ventilation when possible. Machinery should be used to provide clean air while operations take place in enclosed spaces; however, it must be the right kind of machinery. In the warehouse incident, workers used commercial fans, but they weren’t strong enough, Mesaros said.

Ryan McDonald, project manager for McDonald Excavating, said his crew mistakenly believed that an open manhole would have sufficient clean air for work to take place.

鈥淎nytime you can change the air quality in a confined space, it becomes a permit-entry confined space,鈥� he said. 鈥淥nce they fired up the saw, they changed the atmosphere, and that’s where the issue comes up. The crew didn’t follow procedures.鈥�

A third precaution is to make sure all internal combustion equipment for indoor use is in good condition; equipment that isn’t will let out more exhaust and be less efficient, and thus generate more carbon monoxide for a longer period of time.

Finally, in extreme cases, Oregon OSHA recommends that workers use personal carbon monoxide monitors.

Such precautions often are overlooked, Mesaros said. Additionally, they are occasionally disregarded in summertime, when workers assume they are fine because they are in open air.

鈥淚 don’t want to minimize the fact that this could really happen any time,鈥� Mesaros said.

Oregon OSHA has in place a number of regulations for how much gas or chemical exposure workers can be subject to in an eight-hour shift. Noncompliant employers can face a hefty fine. Plus, overexposure can have serious consequences 鈥� even death. Fortunately, none of the July incidents ended that way, but they could have, Mesaros said.

鈥淗ad we not been there (at the warehouse incident), who knows what could have happened.鈥� she said. 鈥淚 shouldn’t call them accidents, because they weren’t all accidents 鈥� when you know there is a risk there, you should be trying to do things that would help reduce the exposure.鈥�