A second person has died following a chemical release at Woodland Pulp mill in Baileyville last month.
The worker, who has not been publicly identified, died from injuries sustained from the gas exposure, mill spokesperson Scott Beal confirmed Tuesday. It was not clear Tuesday when the second worker passed away.
Kasie Malcolm, a University of Maine junior interning at the mill, died the morning after the exposure on Jan. 27.
The workers were exposed to hydrogen sulfide while in the facility’s bleach plant, officials have said. The bleach plant remains closed.
Two federal agencies are investigating the deaths: officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration arrived at the mill the day after the incident and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board opened its own review Feb. 9.
In addition to the two fatalities, eight other workers were exposed to the chemical, according to the chemical safety board.
“According to initial information submitted by the company to the CSB, the incident may have involved the mixing of concentrated sulfuric acid with sulfurous compounds in an enclosed process sewer, resulting in the generation and release of hydrogen sulfide, a highly toxic gas, in the Bleach Plant area of the facility,” agency officials previously said in a statement.
Malcolm was laid to rest Tuesday at a private funeral service in Bangor with his mother, brother, girlfriend and classmates in attendance, his mother’s lawyer Elizabeth Kayatta said.
Malcolm, 20, had arrived at Woodland Pulp for the second leg of his internship, the first of which he completed over the summer, just two weeks before his death. The UMaine student majoring in chemical engineering grew up in Japan and was the first in his family to attend college, Kayatta said.
A local representative from the United Steelworkers Local 27, which represents the eight other workers exposed to hydrogen sulfide, did not respond to inquiries from the Bangor Daily News.
Neither Malcolm nor the worker who died Tuesday were members of Local 27, the representative previously told the Bangor Daily News.
Although hydrogen sulfide is not an ingredient used at the plant, it can be a byproduct of the mill’s pulping process.
“Hydrogen sulfide gas causes a wide range of health effects,” OSHA’s webpage on the chemical says. “Workers are primarily exposed to hydrogen sulfide by breathing it. The effects depend on how much hydrogen sulfide you breathe and for how long. Exposure to very high concentrations can quickly lead to death.”
One of the workers exposed to the chemical was hospitalized after collapsing and falling unconscious in the early afternoon of Jan. 27, Beal previously said. That worker has since been released from the hospital.
The Baileyville Fire Department was dispatched to the plant hours later at 6:20 pm for “two subjects down,” according to Fire Chief Brandon Ireland.
Beal declined to comment when asked why it took so long to notify the local fire department when the worker collapsed in the early afternoon. Beal said he had no information and the investigation was still pending.