A man says that his former company asked him to dump dangerous chemicals into a public system and without any training for the workers on how to handle these chemicals.

Marcos Estes used to work at Fresh Creative Foods in Vista, CA. In July his supervisor told him and several other workers to dump out the leftover chemicals of 75 bins into a drain at the company warehouse that went into a public sewer. Public dumping is problematic as it is, but it became a workers’ compensation issue because the workers had never received training on proper hazardous waste disposal. They did not have any protective gear.

Estes injured his lungs and burned his skin, and another worker was injured in the process. Once Estes realized the dangerous situation they were in he began to capture the dumping on his cell phone.

Dr. Fred Garces is a professor at San Diego Miramar College and was asked about the nature of the chemicals whose labels could be seen on the video. He identified Boost 32, Quorum Yellow 2 and alkaline acids and cleaners. In their separate bins he said the chemicals would not be dangerous and can clean food equipment. When they are all mixed together, he said, they can create a dangerous gas that may harm humans and wildlife. Garces said that there are specialized companies who usually come and take away these kinds of chemicals from businesses and they have trained personnel to do so. In this case it appears the managers wanted to take a short cut, but it came at the great cost of injuring workers and now potentially injuring more members of the public.

Estes is now suing the staffing company that hired him and sent him to work at Fresh Creative Foods, as well as the supervisor of Fresh Creative Foods who told workers to dump the chemicals. Estes said he was burned and developed lung and joint injuries. His lawyer also says that he was fired when he returned to work after his medical leave, and alleges that the company was afraid he would become a whistleblower and fired him preemptively.

The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and the District Attorney’s office are investigating as well.