12/3 FOS Cruise Lung Irritations

[CallagDeb]

All, I remarked on the cruise I was concerned about chemical pneumonia from all the bleach spraying in especially confined areas as the gym, small bathrooms, our stateroom, etc on the FOS. The crew had 4 gallon back packs on them filled with the chlorine mix and with heavy duty sprayers and sprayed all the deck chairs even those close to you. I don't think this was a responsible reaction from RCI. They should have taken more precautions for their guests. Somedays the crew were gas masks as they sprayed, while we sat on chairs without protection.

 

Well tonight, I have been put on steriods, inhalers, and antiboitics not for noro virus but for chlorine exposure for a full week.

 

Be care if you are cruising on a sick ship that is getting sprayed! The staff needs to close areas and spray them without anyone in there, not spraying them amongest the guests as they were on the FOS. Exposure that long to chlorine will irritate lungs and sinus no matter what. You see to treat noro virus the mixture must be left on wet for at least 5 minutes. There was a time I was working out in the gym and 10 folks with bottles of chlorine sprayed all the machines around me at once even while my lungs were already expanded from a rigorous exercise routine.

 

Review this web site: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/chemical_pneumonia/page2_em.htm

 

RCI was hoping to kill the virus, but not much thought was being given to what the on board guests might suffer from because of it. There are a lot of us off the ship now sick, not with GI systems, but hacking cough, and cold like symptons. If the true count of folks sick from the last week be known to include all the lung irriations it would be quite a large number.

 

If anyone on this past week has a photo of the crew in gas masks spraying the cholrine please email it to me at callagdeb@aol.com. I am NOT suing or anything like that, I just want to make it known to them they should do things differently next time. Close the areas and do what you have to do, but get the on board guests out of the fumes.

[Merion_Mom]

I agree with you about the corrosive effects of chlorine. Of course, I would have gotten up and moved......................

 

:)

[seamour]

well me too, but if they are spraying the ship down every 30 minutes like I read in another post, where is one to move to that won't be getting sprayed ? I honestly think the areas being sprayed should have been closed down.

[CallagDeb]

I was asleep on the deck and was awoken by the fumes, but we had no control of the gym or cabin....or bathrooms we just had to use. Wasn't that easy.

[isujim]

hadn't thought of that.........but yes.........that could be a big problem

[katiel53]

I am playing Devil's Advocate. Had they closed down the areas for spraying, how many people would have complained that they couldn't use xyz for x many minutes etc? There would have been many complaints.

 

Where could you go? I guess if I didn't want to be where things were being sprayed I would go to my cabin for a while. I understand things were sprayed every 30 mins. I wouldn't want to spend my cruise in my cabin, but if the chlorine bothered me, that's what I would do.

 

I say all this NOT having been in the position you were. As I said, I am just playing Devil's Advocate. What did you want the ship to do? Stop spraying? Have more people become ill? What would YOU have had them do?

 

Katie

[CallagDeb]

I would have had them close a section at a time in an organized fashion. Don't we always see, bathroom closed for cleaning? We could have accepted that and moved on. Things closed temporarily would have been only a minor problem, we could adjust. We knew what the crew was up against. Now get it straight, to run to your cabin may to have run into even more cholrine...for formal night we couldn't even see in our mirror in the bathroom it was so streaked. There was NO safe haven. They were out to spray anything no matter what. You touched your door handle to your cabin and knew what awaited you inside.

[dolphincruiser404]

I did notice this when I was on the Serenade a few weeks ago. Our trip was interrupted after 3 days for another reason, but the bleach/chlorine fumes were harsh on the lungs. I am asthmatic and had to use my meds during that time. That said, I do think they made the right decision to sanitize the ship against norovirus, too bad they couldn't come up with a better way to keep the fumes at a minimum. It's not likely there would be anyway to solve both problems.

[Freedom Cruiser]

I agree with you about the corrosive effects of chlorine. Of course, I would have gotten up and moved......................

 

:)

 

Being on that sailing with Deb, I can attest that there was nowhere to move. Even our cabins were covered in bleach! Also, at points in time the winds were over 40+ miles an hour so even if you were outside and away from the sprayers you were still getting hit with the bleach and the fumes.

[isujim]

While not putting down the cruiseline in any way.......it does seem like maybe a review of procedures is in order.

[Esmerelda]

Anyone with lung issues...asthma...allergies would be affected by bleach being sprayed. I'm with eveyone else here, this policy needs to be revamped! Bleach is not even supposed to be in contact with your skin....wouldn't they think of that? (like as in handrails...doorknobs..etc) My own asthmatic son doesn't tolerate that smell very well.

 

Sounds like their heart is in the right place...but their procedure is not correct.

 

I work in ER...if we sprayed bleach everywhere to kill all the germs...we would just create more work for ourselves....:( (as in patients)

 

Esmrelda

[zotzer]

I took pictures....not as ammo against RCI, but for my scrapbook. :) Will post some here, but I am not sure they'll help much. No masks, and the pool deck was virtually empty. Took them the morning we were at Grand Cayman. I found the crew to be as considerate as was possible under the circumstances.

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry you are sick. Having had this chemical-induced pneumonia before, it's surprising you didn't snap a few shots yourself. I'm so not trying to start a war. I was there and am sympathetic. I even posted from the ship (in a lighthearted manner) that my sense of smell had been irradicated by bleach.

 

It's just that in life one has to pick their battles and make their own experiences. If this is an important battle for you, then go for it and let us know how it works out. For me, the week will be about fun memories, and a hardworking crew doing the best they could under the circumstances.

 

I, for one, am happy with my 20% future cruise discount, and will be using it as soon as my TA has it in his hot little hands :)

 

T

[PA Dutchman]

Looking at the pictures, where are all the people that are getting sprayed ????

[zotzer]

Here, I found one where a guy has a mask on, and there are some passengers in the pic. Not sure how he is supposed to ignore sanitizing the handrails of the pool, but it is what it is......

 

 

T

[ERsecurity]

Thanks for the heads up. My wife has suffered from a severe lung burn caused by overexposure to bleach in the past and we will be very cautious on our January two weeker on the Mariner.

[CallagDeb]

We are am not flaming RCI, we just expect better. We just want them to develop a plan and not just go spraying all over all the time.....to be organized about it. Have a plan of attack, closing down sections at a time if need be just not constantly spraying everything all the time. This situation is not going a way with the bigger ships coming out, they need to have a plan of attack to deal with this resulting in rolling shut downs of areas to be heavily sprayed.

 

They were wearing masks later in the week, after they flew the crew into Mexico to join the ship. At first it was the white surgical masks, no biggie, we understood that but when we saw the gas masks the next day we began to get worried. Seems to us they then realized the dangers of the fumes and were telling us nothing nor were they organized about where they sprayed around passengers. At that point believe us we didn't even think about taking a photo but to get the heck out of there fearing they had raised the levels of chlorine concentrate. But then we realized they were spraying inside our cabin routinely as well we were not happy campers.

 

We expected them to be honest with us a check in and not tell us a small amount of previous week passengers were sick. To us 400+ is not a small amount. We would have liked to have had the same choice as this weeks passengers to cruise or not to cruise and get a refund for against a later cruise. Some folks tried to cancel at check in and were told no, they would lose their money, short and sweet. We are angry they were not honest from the get go and tell us what we were up against. If they had made us the offer then the choice would have been ours and the responsibility would have been ours. They should have told us we would sail under a red flag all week which meant constant spraying and cleaning.

 

And no, 20% off a future curise for a cruise experience resulitng in one of us being on steriods, inhaler, and antibiotics not because of noro virus but because of chlorine is not ample compenstation in our book. It was purely a lack of organization on RCI's part.

[andnickali]

Over exposure to bleach is a serious concern and RC should have realized this prior to the process being started. Interior areas being cleaned should have been ventilated and closed to the public- there is no excuse for not doing so. Outside areas have the benefit of air movement, but overspray is a concern and those areas should have been roped off.

 

While we were on a weekend vacation to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg VA the amount of chlorine used in the waterpark (which is all inside) was excessive- to the point that some children (and adults) were coughing to the point of vomiting! My son's asthma flared up and since I only had his inhaler we ended up having to take him to the ER for a neb treatment (first time to the ER in 11 years). Of course GWL stated they were just following "procedure"........just like RC.

[Happy ks]

As a person who would also suffer ill effects from bleach spray, I can sympathize with you. You're absolutely right, they should close off one area at a time and not spray when pax are in the area. I thought RCI learned an important lesson this past spring, with Mercury being sanitized, actually drenched with spray and the CDC telling them they were doing it all wrong.

 

Although a 20% discount on a future cruise sounds great, if you're sick for weeks because of the effects, it's not always such great compensation. I do not, however, know what else the cruiseline can do. So changing the future practise is the only thing that can keep it from happening to others.

[CallagDeb]

To answer the comment about prior Chemical Pneumonia, that didin't even occur to us when it was happening, only when the dry hack developed on Monday and then on Thursday the irriation was confirmed by a doctor. Last time I had Chemical Pneumonia was 20 years ago after an over exposure to varnished floors.

 

But when we did get off the ship at Montego bay and approached to get back on you could smell the bleach from the ship about 50 feet away, we laughed at the time and said Yes that's our ship....but it wasn't funny after doctor visits and talking to others on the same cruise, that's when we realized it was a real problem that needed to be addressed. The public needs to be aware.

 

We will still cruise RCI, it is our cruise line of choice, they just need to be a leader in the cruise industry to develop a well organized plan in procedures should they need to go to code red again.

[Ocean Boy]

Looking at the pictures, where are all the people that are getting sprayed ????

You know what, maybe you don't see them in the picture but that doesn't mean it wasn't happening. I have pictures of Explorer from when I sailed her and to look at them you might think I was the only person on the ship but there were , in fact, some 4000 other people on the ship with me.

[kenf333]

I guess I'm confused, the passengers are the ones that have had the virus, not the ship, and closing down a section would only clean it until a passenger touched something. It sounds like from many people posting that it came down to getting the virus or them cleaning all the time. The cruise after yours was delayed a day or two for them to do a top to bottom cleaning, while no passengers were on board. It would be interesting hearing from the people on this cruise to see if the virus is gone. Hope you start feeling better for the holidays!!!!

[CallagDeb]

You know what, maybe you don't see them in the picture but that doesn't mean it wasn't happening. I have pictures of Explorer from when I sailed her and to look at them you might think I was the only person on the ship but there were , in fact, some 4000 other people on the ship with me.

 

You don't have to be directly sprayed to inhale the fumes, as I said before, the solution was left wet dripping on everything....the entire ship was drenched. There was 3907 passengers on this ship and over 1400+ crew.

[CallagDeb]

I guess I'm confused, the passengers are the ones that have had the virus, not the ship, and closing down a section would only clean it until a passenger touched something. It sounds like from many people posting that it came down to getting the virus or them cleaning all the time. The cruise after yours was delayed a day or two for them to do a top to bottom cleaning, while no passengers were on board. It would be interesting hearing from the people on this cruise to see if the virus is gone. Hope you start feeling better for the holidays!!!!

This is nothing to do with the virus, we are talking after the cure making folks sick. We did not get the virus, the virus passes in 48 hours, the lung iriation takes longer to cure. We are not refuting them having to clean, just don't make us sick with the cleaning.

[kenf333]

This is nothing to do with the virus, we are talking after the cure making folks sick. We did not get the virus, the virus passes in 48 hours, the lung iriation takes longer to cure. We are not refuting them having to clean, just don't make us sick with the cleaning.

 

Oh, I thought that they were doing all this cleaning because of the virus, sorry I guess I did not understand. Wow, 48 hrs, you would think with all the news reports this is a long drawn out thing. Again, I hope you get better for the holidays.

[CallagDeb]

Oh, I thought that they were doing all this cleaning because of the virus, sorry I guess I did not understand. Wow, 48 hrs, you would think with all the news reports this is a long drawn out thing. Again, I hope you get better for the holidays.

They were cleaning for the virus, however the unorganized cleaning caused other health issues that need to be addressed and precautions taken for on behalf of all the passengers.