Seventeen people were taken to Long Island hospitals after they were exposed to carbon monoxide at a writing utensil production facility Wednesday afternoon, police said.
An employee at Liqui-Mark in Hauppauge began feeling nauseous and was suffering from a headache. Responders were called to the facility and used carbon monoxide detectors to determine that high levels of the poison were in the air, according to police.
The Hauppauge Fire Department tested 30 employees, of which 17 tested positive for carbon monoxide exposure.
The woman who felt ill was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. The other 16 employees felt no symptoms but were transported to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center, Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, and St. Catherine of Sienna Medical Center in Smithtown, for treatment.
The business is closed while an air conditioning unit is repaired. It's believed to be the cause of the high levels of carbon monoxide, although an investigation is ongoing.
Additional detectors are also being installed at the location, police said.
