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Georgia environmental official Kenny Johnson “died after suddenly collapsing” on Tuesday. The Rockdale County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor had just finished testifying about the “toxic chemical plant inferno” outside Atlanta last month. There will be an investigation into the cause of his demise, which could be directly related to the September 29 BioLab blaze.
Environmental official dies
Georgia’s environmental official charged with soil and water conservation suddenly passed away on October 8. Kenny Johnson had just finished filling in the public about the BioLab chemical fire in Conyers.
After a sprinkler head malfunctioned, a substance which reacts violently with water caused a huge explosion and fire. BioLab makes swimming pool treatment chemicals. The uncontrollable blaze “spewed clouds of hazardous chlorine gas and smoke throughout the area.”
The Rockdale County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor appeared at a public meeting to testify “alongside business owners and leaders about the BioLab chemical fire.”
Shortly after the hearing, the 62-year-old official “collapsed and was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he died.” For now, the coroner can’t say much.
According to a statement released by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, “due to the circumstances of Johnson’s death, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has agreed to investigate.”
They will release an official cause of death once the autopsy is complete. Witnesses relate that after his turn to deliver remarks, Johnson “complained of shortness of breath and subsequently collapsed in the hallway” after the meeting. Exposure to chlorine gas could do that.
An environmental disaster
As related by State lawmaker Viola Davis, who’s “a nurse by profession” and “administered CPR while waiting for EMS to arrive,” Kenny “dedicated years as the Soil and Water Conservation District representative.”
More importantly, he was a fierce environmental justice advocate. The watchdog official was upset with the chemical company. “His unwavering commitment to environmental justice and his testimony on the effects of the Biolab chemical fire on the community remain etched in our memories.”
This wasn’t the first dangerous fire started under similar circumstance at the BioLab plant. That’s why Johnson was one Georgia official of a growing number joining lawmakers in “calling for BioLab to shut its doors.”
This most recent inferno “forced 17,000 to evacuate the area and around 90,000 more to shelter in place as the toxic plume spread.” They were better off staying put than trying to evacuate.
“I knew that this was going to happen,” Johnson told reporters Monday. “We have an environmental disaster.” Nobody expected him to take it so personally. If his death does turn out to be related to toxic chemical exposure, it certainly will not be in vain. His memory will live forever as someone that the chemically sensitive community can point to. Those who suffer the debilitating long term effects of such incidents can use his tragedy to attract attention to their own plight. Toxicant Induced Loss of Tolerance adversely affects nearly 85 million Americans and most of them have never even heard of it. Neither has the medical community.
The death of an environmental official unfortunately gets attention which millions of sufferers haven’t been able to get any other way. As of Wednesday, “those living within a two-mile radius of the plant were still under shelter-in-place orders.” You can expect a significant number of them to have life-changing effects, which only get worse over time, for the rest of their lives. There is no treatment or cure.
