What's That Smell?! Public Bathroom Stench Sends Man to Hospital

New York City is the middle of heatwave. With millions of residents and tourists, public restrooms are a necessity. Now, can you imagine the smell of those public restrooms? Better not.

Noxious odors from the public bathroom of a Lower East Side park made one city worker so sick he had to seek emergency medical treatment, co-workers said Tuesday. A Parks Department staffer assigned to the agency’s central communications center at Sara D. Roosevelt Park became nauseous and began feeling tightness in his chest Monday after inhaling the odors, fellow workers said. They blamed junkies and homeless people who regularly frequent the park and over the weekend clogged its toilets with needles, rags and a hoodie. The jammed toilets sent fecal fumes and raw sewage into the center’s basement where it damaged records and equipment — and had workers holding their noses. “It smells like the Fulton Fish Market times five, and the only protection our workers get from the city are cans of air freshener,” said Joe Puleo, president of the union that represents parks workers. Daniel Roca, 54, became so ill during his shift after sniffing the fumes that he was rushed to a local hospital and ordered by his doctor not to return to work until the stench is gone, co-workers said. Roca declined comment. It’s unclear whether he had other medical ailments that could have contributed to his condition. Co-workers reluctantly remained on the job wearing dust masks to help counter the pungent odors. Parks Department spokesman Sam Biederman said the agency “has already begun undertaking necessary improvements to the facility, including a thorough cleaning and plumbing repairs.” Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates called the condition of the 7.8-acre park — named in honor of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s mother — “a disgrace.”

source: NY Post

A hoodie?