Swimmer suffered similar symptoms at gas-leaking pool in Coseley two years ago

Apr 19 2009 by Fionnuala Bourke, Sunday Mercury

A MAN has told how he was hospitalised after using a Midland swimming pool two years before nearly 50 people suffered similar symptoms.

Firefighters who tackled the chlorine gas leak at Coseley Swimming Pool, in Dudley, on April 8 said they were 20 minutes away from a major disaster.

The leak left 48 people, many of them children, needing hospital treatment for severely watering eyes, breathing difficulties and throat and nose irritation.

Now Terrence Carvin, 62, says he was hospitalised with similar symptoms after using the baths two years ago.

And he claims attendants at the pool told him that the temperature and chlorine levels were faulty.

He said: “They told me they had reported that the plant was defective but nothing had been done about it.

“The council have said that the evacuation last week was because the manufacturers sent the wrong chemical, and that’s a lie.

“They already knew the plant was faulty.”

A spokesman for Dudley Metropolitan Council, which runs the baths, said they had received no previous reports of people being hospitalised after using the pool until Wednesday April 8.

And he strongly denied the allegation that the evacuation was caused by a faulty plant and re-issued the statement given immediately after the evacuation.