Man dies while cleaning manhole for gold residue

Tien Giang A group of workers went down a manhole more than 2 meters deep to filter mud with the aim of finding gold residue and suffocated, one person died on the afternoon of October 19.

After 2 p.m., Mr. Doan Thanh Tam, 44, and four colleagues were hired to clean a manhole for a gold shop owner in Duc Binh commune, Chau Thanh district. At noon, he discovered a colleague was suffocating, so he and the others went down to rescue him and met with an accident.

The manhole where the male worker had the accident. Photo: Hoang Nam — The manhole where the male worker had the accident. Photo: *Hoang Nam*

The other four also suffered suffocation, but were brought up in time and are now in stable condition. Authorities initially determined that Mr. Tam's cause of death was respiratory failure due to drowning.

According to the shop owner, after finishing their work, the goldsmiths will take a bath, and the wastewater will flow down the drain. After many years, the shop owner will hire someone to pump out the sludge, then go through several steps to filter the gold residue accumulated in the drain.

According to Dr. Tran Thi Ngoc Lan, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Natural Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City, wells and sewers are closed spaces with little oxygen. If sewers contain a lot of garbage and decomposing animal carcasses, they will produce many toxic gases such as methane, H2S and CO. When inhaling these gases, victims can easily fall into a coma and die.

Hoang Nam

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