Written by Afa Silverman, CNN
It’s been the subject of unwelcome headlines for more than a year: There are now 763 schools in Ontario with reported cases of air pollution poisoning, including 45 at which the number of reported cases is at least 15 times the normal amount.
Those incidents have involved carbon monoxide, which the Canadian province’s Ministry of Health said may be a problem in buildings where air conditioning has been used to cool temperatures at higher than normal levels.
In a statement emailed to CNN, Cargill, a grain trader and food company that is one of the top five employers in Ontario, apologized for the incidents. The company said that it looked into the matter, “at no point did we receive proof that employees were being exposed to unsafe levels of carbon monoxide.”
In April 2018, Cargill paid a $400,000 settlement to class action lawsuit against it relating to the allegations that employees were poisoned.