After nearly fifty people complained of serious eye irritations, the dairy cow pavilion at the Royal Adelaide Show has been closed down. Organizers are blaming stagnant urine for the irritations. St John Ambulance volunteers were called to the Dairy Cattle pavilion after some people reported irritation to their eyes. 30 people required treatment at the site. 20 more people reported to the emergency department of the Royal Adelaide Hospital where their eyes were washed.
Dairy cattle committee chairman David Fechner himself needed treatment and was treated for six hours at the Royal Adelaide Hospital after taking himself to the emergency department on Monday night. He had spent Monday morning announcing in the judging tents. He said he had four litres of saline administered to each eye and he was not allowed to leave until the pH in his eyes was below 8. He said, “To be honest what it really did feel like was a really bad case of welding flash.” He expressed his surprise at the incident saying, “I've been on the council 12-13 years…We've done nothing different now than what we've done the last 12 years.”
According to a spokesman for the show, Michelle Hocking the wet weather may have created conditions within the pavilion where ammonia from cow urine had been released. Another possible cause was slow release fertiliser which had been applied on grass before the Show. Onlookers said that there was no smell and people wearing glasses were spared. No permanent damage was inflicted. Judging was moved to another area.
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