temp mill closing

[trapper]

ESCANABA, Mich. (WLUC) - Billerud has decided to temporarily idle its Escanaba mill for up to three weeks as the investigation into blastomycosis infections among workers there continues.
The company made the announcement Thursday afternoon, calling it a "precautionary measure to protect the health and safety of its employees and contractors due to a blastomycosis fungal infection outbreak.

[Firewoodjoe]

I heard something was going on but didn't know it was an infection! Crazy. Hope they sort it out quick. That affects everyone around in a way. 

[wisconsitom]

Never heard of a blasto cluster like this.  Even here in great lakes where "most common", a rare infection.  We had that cluster on and along the Wolf River a few years back, but this is way beyond that.

[Ianab]

That one's so uncommon I had to look it up. For that many cases to show up in one spot there has to be a serious colony of that fungus in the soil or wood waste around the site?  If your chances of catching it (even in an area where it's common) is 1 in 100,000, to get almost 100 cases in one place is significant. Old bark and wood waste slowly decaying around the edges of the plant maybe? 

[Machinebuilder]

Wow

Blastomycosis can be really bad. I had a dog that it took the vet several visits to diagnose

Unfortunatly she was in severe distress by that time and the treatment had a low success possibility.
I had to have her out out of her misery.

I wish the best for anyone that is sick and hope they recover.

[peakbagger]

Papermills are close to perfect for growing stuff. Warm temps and near 100% relative humidity. When I worked in an old papermill it was along a river and had the main floor, the basement and the sub basement. We were supposed to have detailed customer inspection in a couple of days and the crews were cleaning up the place. We got a call from one crew that there was something going on in the subbasement. The entire floor was black and it looked like it was moving. If the black stuff was sprayed with a hose it would move and then fill in the clean spot. Someone took a cup on a stick and grabbed a sample and it was baby leeches. They were breeding on the floor. We ended up getting bags of salt and salting the floor. It killed them and then the hosed them down the drain to our treatment plant.  

[barbender]

Nasty🤢🤢🤮

[thecfarm]

That blastomycosis sounds bad!!!