STILL FUMING
L train stench sickens workers for 2nd day
L train riders and transit workers continued to be canaries in the MTA’s coal mine Wednesday.
Three MTA workers had to be hospitalized after hours spent inhaling the sickening stench that caused a brief shutdown the day before.
The workers fell ill from the heavy fumes — and later on, Transport Workers Union Local 100 officials began distributing masks to station agents.
“They’re telling them the smell is still here. Some guys are saying, I’m starting to feel a little lightheaded,” a subway source said. “Another person is saying, ‘It’s making me nauseous.’”
State Department of Environmental Conservation officials Wednesday found water with “sheens” that seeped into the subway, giving off a smell an agency spokeswoman called “aged petroleum odors.” MTA officials believe it’s heating oil.
The gas smell seemed to hit riders the hardest between Graham Ave. and Grand St., lingering to Bedford Ave.
Despite the all-clear to restart service Tuesday, riders and transit workers were still being affected by the stink through Wednesday.
“It’s scary,” said Joe Vincent, 55, a bartender from Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “Gas like this, you don’t know what it’s going to do to you.”
Gillian Lavictoire, 33, who was with her daughter, 5, at the Graham Ave. station, said it was an awful smell, though it’s dissipated over the previous couple of days.
“If it’s a health and safety matter, they should shut it down,” she said.
Ralph Russo, who lives across the street from the Graham Ave. station entrance, said he was unable to sleep in his street-facing bedroom. He thought the gasoline-like smell was unsafe.
“I had to lock the doors and sleep in the living room,” Russo, 77, said.
One TWU station agent working at Graham Ave. bought his own mask after he began to feel ill on duty, a Local 100 source said.
A train conductor was also seen wearing a paper mask.
“It’s terrible,” he said.” I got a headache.”
Evangeline Byars, an executive board member of train operators at Local 100, was at the Montrose Ave. station Wednesday to instruct workers on how to deal with the smell and fill out injury-onduty forms.
The smell was so intense she could only stand it for 30 minutes.
“It’s not like just a regular odor,” said Byars. “It’s very, very strong and it’s traveling.”
A two-person crew working on the L filled out hazerelated injury-on-duty reports Wednesday afternoon.
“I have respiratory issues,” said the train operator.
“My throat was irritated. I started coughing and wheezing. My partner was complaining about nausea,” the operator added.
State environmental officials returned to the stinky stretch of track Wednesday to collect more samples and identify the source.
The MTA set up fans and vents to try to ventilate the fumes. The agency reassured riders again that the nauseating smells are not harmful — while admitting they had no idea what was causing the smell.
“We don’t really know what it is,” said MTA chief safety officer Patrick Warren. “It is not in any way toxic or unsafe.”