WASHINGTON — Five U.S. Postal Service employees have died in the last 14-months, sparking fears that their building may be filled with poisonous gas.
Those fears are not entirely unfounded, as a USPS inspector general report last week revealed that a methane gas detection system installed to warn against toxic air in the facility hasn’t worked for a year.
The one million-square foot building that now houses the Metroplex Processing and Distribution Center in Pontiac, Michigan was formerly a vehicle manufacturing plant, and when it was sold to USPS, studies performed at the site found contaminants at “multiple underground locations throughout the site,” according to reports.
A detection system was installed to prevent the buildup of methane gas, but it hasn’t worked right since March 2015, according to the IG report. Though the government watchdog would not connect the recent deaths to gas buildup, Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Revenue and Resources anet M. Sorensen said the task ahead was most urgent.
“It is important to ensure that methane levels never spike to an extent that causes harm to individuals,” her report reads. “Methane is odorless and colorless. Methane gas can be inhaled when it enters and accumulates in a building. If methane builds up in enclosed spaces, the health and safety of employees may be at risk and could result in medical complications.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, high concentrations of methane in the air will cause a deficiency of oxygen with the risk of unconsciousness or death.
According to a story in the Oakland Press, postmortem medical examinations declared that the five employees died from natural causes. The most recent was in August.
But the number of deaths in such a short span of time has people there worried. One of the employees, according to the paper, was a 38-year-old Detroit woman who was found dead in the parking lot of the facility last summer after working an overnight shift.
She was determined to have suffered from bronchial asthma — “a condition in which breathing airways become inflamed, swell and then narrow” — said the paper. However, she was believed to have no pre-existing medical conditions.
“People are scared,” Marlon Harris, vice president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union local 307, told Government Executive. He said employees have been complaining of headaches and excessive coughing, and had first brought the matter to the IG, which followed up with the investigation.
According to the report, management agreed the methane detection system is in need of repair. However, management insisted that “there were never health concerns regarding the employees at the Michigan Metroplex,” and that a January evaluation found methane levels to be “low” with “no immediate health or safety concerns identified with regard to the methane levels in the facility.”
However, it is not clear why the detection system had been malfunctioning for so long. When the postal service first moved into the building, the system’s vendor was doing the maintenance. That responsibility was turned over to USPS in 2014.
The vendor hired by USPS to keep up with it told the IG investigators that “he repeatedly recommended the Postal Service resolve his claims of methane buildup.” Specifically, according to the report, “the vendor recommended the Postal Service modify the system to include a ventilation of the pipes that release the methane gas into the atmosphere.”
Management said it is pursuing a course in which a qualified vendor will be hired “to provide repairs and enhancements as needed to ensure methane issues are mitigated and the system is working properly.”
The postal services reiterated their commitment in a statement sent to WTOP.com Monday:
In the management response to the OIG report, the Postal Service indicated that it remained committed to the health and safety of its employees. While the Postal Service agreed with the recommendations in the OIG’s report, the Postal Service emphasized that there was never any health or safety threat to employees at the Michigan Metroplex. As specifically noted in the OIG’s report, a third party vendor conducted an independent evaluation on January 15, 2016 and found no immediate health or safety concerns regarding methane levels at the Michigan Metroplex. The Postal Service did agree to evaluate and resolve any issues related to sensors on its methane detection system but again referenced the independent evaluation confirming there was no safety threat to employees.
