The Broward County Medical Examiner has released its report on the death of a man who fell ill after fumigating a furniture warehouse in Pompano Beach back in April.
Leon Johnson, 64, was one of three pest control workers who became sick after fumigating the Baer's Furniture warehouse on April 22.
Police found Johnson dead inside his car that night outside his Hollywood home on Taft Street, after a concerned neighbor called police.
A second worker — identified as only "Jason" — was found dead in Boynton Beach, while a third worker — identified as Cris Anderson, the owner of the pest control company — had to be hospitalized in Palm Beach County but survived.
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According to the medical examiner's report obtained by NBC6 on Wednesday, the official cause of death for Johnson was acute toxic effects of fluoride. The manner of death was ruled an accident.
The medical examiner wrote that Johnson used sulfuryl fluoride on the job and was accidentally poisoned by it. Test results found he had more than three times what is considered a deadly amount of fluoride in his body, at 8.5 milligrams per liter.
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“There are substantial concerns whether or not this was an issue with the chemicals themselves, was this an issue manufacturing the concentration or was this an issue with the execution with the equipment involved or perhaps on a company level," said Joseph Madalon, a personal injury attorney representing the Johnson family. "Those are questions we will have answers to,”
Johnson and the two other men, who worked for Anderson Pest Control of West Palm Beach, were fumigating the warehouse when two of them felt sick and started vomiting, the report said. They had already been working 32-36 hours straight, the report said.
“It’s a mystery that three lifetime professionals would end up being in this situation where three of them suffered severe injury and two deaths in a process they have done day after day," Madalon said. "So something clearly is wrong and trying to figure out what that is, is where we are right now.”
Johnson had worked at Anderson Pest Control for more than a decade and spent the bulk of his career working in the fumigation and pest control industry. He leaves behind two sons and a daughter.
“The family is grieving privately and it hasn’t been easy this being an unnatural passing. I think the best thing I can share with you is that they are a wonderful family now missing a very important part of their core,” Madalon said.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating along with the Department of Agriculture.
NBC6 has made repeated calls to Anderson Pest Control and their response has been "no comment."
