JUNE 2, 2015
MAIDEN, N.C.
Five people were discharged from a hospital where they were
sent after a chemicals leak at a large Apple data center in North
Carolina Monday.
Emergency Management for Catawba County, North Carolina,
says chlorine leaked in the building on Startown Road in Maiden.
Paramedics took five people to Catawba Valley Medical
Center. They reported feeling dizzy and lightheaded from inhalation.
Hazmat crews entered the building late in the afternoon to
investigate further and perform air quality tests. It was been deemed safe and
cleanup crews followed.
Apple said the five workers were taken to the local hospital
following possible exposure to fumes, "which may have been released during
a spill of a chemical used to clean the cooling systems."
All five were discharged and will return to work Tuesday,
the company said in a statement. It said the spill poses no threat to anyone
else at the facility.
Google, Facebook and Apple have data centers in North
Carolina, benefiting from tax breaks, cheap and plentiful supplies of power,
inexpensive land, and relatively temperate weather. The data centers are close
to a major East Coast Internet pipeline that runs along Interstate 85.
Apple has pledged to invest $1 billion in the 183-acre data
center over a decade, said the Charlotte Observer.
Apple's Maiden location handles services such as iMessages,
iTunes and photos.
It runs entirely off renewable energy, a contrast with North
Carolina's heavy coal and nuclear power usage, using onsite biogas fuel cells
and two 20-megawatt solar arrays, plus purchased renewable energy.
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JUNE 2, 2015
MAIDEN, N.C.
Five people were treated after a chemical leak at Apple's
data center in Catawba County.
The initial call was made to crews around 2 p.m. Monday.
Emergency Management says chlorine leaked in the building on
Startown Road in Maiden.
Paramedics took the five people to Catawba Valley Medical
Center. They reported feeling dizzy and lightheaded from inhalation but will be
okay. Apple says they'll return to work Tuesday.
"There was an unexpected release of a gaseous chemical
that made them sick. Five people transported to Catawba Valley Medical Center.
The last I heard, they were all in pretty good shape," the county's
emergency manager Karyn Yaussy said.
Hazmat crews entered the building late in the afternoon to
investigate further and perform air quality tests. It has been deemed safe and
cleanup crews have contained the problem.
Apple issued a comment, saying:
Five workers at our Maiden data center were taken to a local
hospital following possible exposure to fumes, which may have been released
during a spill of a chemical used to clean the cooling systems. All five were
discharged and will return to work tomorrow. The spill was quickly contained
and poses no threat to anyone else at the facility."
Google, Facebook and Apple have data centers in North
Carolina. In a previous NBC Charlotte interview with GigaOm writer Katie
Feherenbacher, she told us these centers usually house stacks and stacks of
servers with large amounts of data. Usually the ones closest to you
geographically store your information. She said Apple's Maiden location is home
to iCloud music data. These data centers use a great deal of energy. Apple's
happens to sit next to a solar farm in Maiden and draws energy from there.