Toxic gas poisons Altira workers

A total of 19 workers of Hotel Altira fell ill on Thursday after being exposed to toxic gas at the five-star casino hotel.
The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon and customers and workers inside the hotel were evacuated by local police and fire fighters. The 19 poisoned workers developed symptoms such as nausea, respiratory difficulty, eye pain, sore throat, headache, and vomiting, and were later rushed to local hospitals, according to Macau’s Health Bureau.
Five of the victims have been discharged from hospital and the others remain in hospital for medical care though they were in a stable condition, the Health Bureau also said.
The incident was occurred when one of the workers mixed bleach and hydrochloric acid used for cleaning the pool which produced a strong irritant gas. As the control room of the hotel is located on the 15th floor, the gas spread through the air conditioning system to other floors affecting workers.
Meanwhile, later yesterday, at a Spring Festival media dinner on the restaurant at the 11th floor of Altira, the president of the hotel-casino, Ted Chan said that the junket commission rate fixed by the Government by 1.25 has not impacted on growth at Altira. In fact, he said, the casino has logged between MOP 20 to 30 billion in turnover each month since December last year.
At the same event, Greg Hawkins, the president of the second property owned by Melco Crown Entertainment in the territory, City of Dreams, said that the company is looking to diversify the retail options with less of a luxury focus. Therefore, he added, the resort in Cotai is intending to include more non-gaming facilities for family-style entertainment and night clubs.