A carbon monoxide leak from an ice resurfacer at an arena in Australia sickened 42 people over the weekend.
According to ABC, emergency services were called to the Adelaide Ice Arena at Thebarton early Sunday to find more than a dozen people presenting with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.
South Australia's public health chief, Nicola Spurrier, said that a total of 38 people were treated, including several hockey players from Melbourne Ice who were at the venue for a match against Adelaide Rush. Since then, new cases have come to light, bringing the total to 42 people affected.
"There were different levels of exposure in the centre and certainly the teams involved with the ice hockey were most symptomatic," Spurrier said.
SA Health said those affected ranged in age from 17 to those in their early 40s.
"I thought it was important that we did let South Australians know if they had been there and they were still experiencing symptoms to be assessed … particularly people who are pregnant, but also very young infants," Professor Spurrier said. "[That's] mainly because you can't tell in that age group, and with the pregnant mums with the foetus, whether there's any symptoms."
Ice Arena's managing director Richard Laidlaw said alarms to monitor for carbon monoxide had since been installed.
"That was the first thing we did when we took back possession of the facility – install alarms everywhere," he said.
Laidlaw said the machine responsible was last week identified as requiring another maintenance check, and that, even prior to the weekend's incident, it had been scheduled for servicing this morning.
The incident is now under investigation by SafeWork.
