4 Workers Die by Asphyxiation in Fish Canning Unit in Morocco’s Agadir

Rabat – Four workers died on Sunday in a fish canning unit in Morocco’s coastal province of Agadir after inhaling toxic cleaning substances.

The workers were operating in the fish canning factory, in the industrial zone of Anza in northern Agadir, via a private cleaning company, according to news outlet 2M.

The four victims were cleaning a basin when they inhaled toxic chemicals from cleaning products, leading to their death by asphyxiation.

Morocco’s local authorities and security services transferred the workers who died to the mortuary of Agadir. Meanwhile, the general prosecutor’s office opened an investigation to elucidate the circumstances and the causes of the incident, according to the same source.

Cleaning chemicals can kill not only humans but also animals, if not used carefully. Recently, on September 18, 97 livestock died near the northern province of Nador when a farmer forgot to clean citric acid, a toxic cleaning product, from local pipes.

The livestock, including sheep and goats, died immediately after drinking the poisoned water. For farmers of the rural commune of Beni Oukil, raising livestock was their only source of income.

The lack of health safety in some Moroccan workplaces has sometimes led to significant health issues, namely during the spread of COVID-19.

The most notorious case is that of red fruit production units in Lalla Mimouna, near the city of Kenitra, which saw a large number of COVID-19 infections within their workforce.

The protocol breach led to more than 500 cases of COVID-19 among workers in the berry packaging units and a major outbreak in the surrounding provinces, though Morocco did not make available numbers of any who died specifically from this cluster.

As soon as health authorities announced the outbreak, a commission including representatives from the ministries of the interior, health, agriculture, and labor began work to determine the parties responsible.