Bermuda Industrial Union leader Derrick Burgess called on Works and Engineering to stop collecting trash from some households after two garbage collectors narrowly escaped injury yesterday when they picked up a bottle of acid hidden in a plastic bag.

The muriatic acid sprayed out and began smoking when Clinton Caisey and Janett Smith crushed a plastic bag in their truck, which they picked up outside a house in Overock Drive, Fairylands, yesterday morning.

Dumping hazardous materials with ordinary trash is strictly prohibited, but garbage collectors say they are regularly put at risk when they find toxic materials such as acid and paint.

The materials spray out when the bags are crushed and can cause injury to collectors who ride on the back of the trucks.

One collector was recently sprayed with dog faeces dumped in a bag, while in another chilling incident, someone put a cow's head in a blue recycling bag, which had to be opened by hand at the recycling centre. The cow's head had decomposed and was crawling with maggots when the bag was opened.

Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott said yesterday he will be writing to the householder in Fairylands after he receives a report on the incident from the Health and Safety officer.

His department can instruct households to stop dumping hazardous materials with ordinary trash and can refuse to collect the rubbish if they continue to do so.

Mr. Burgess, the President of Bermuda Industrial Union, told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "The Ministry of Works and Engineering has made appeals to Bermudians that our workers are human beings like anyone else.

"They need to put themselves in the position our workers are in, and not subject them to hazardous conditions. They do a good job and it is not fair, and almost criminal, to put this stuff out in the trash for our workers to be subjected to it.

"I am sure the Ministry will write to these people and say they won't collect their trash. They should make an example of these people, because our workers, who have families like everyone else, should not go through these daily ordeals.

"The Minister (Alex Scott) has made appeals to people, and I would not be surprised if he took the ultimate action of not collecting at these residencies.''

Mr. Caisey described yesterday how he came close to being seriously injured when he put a series of plastic bags into the crushing machine on the truck.

"It was scary. Usually when it closes, due to the compression, when it's wet it sprays. But this one started smoking and spraying a bit out the sides, and I inhaled a little.

"I told the driver (Ms Smith) to stop the truck because it was going crazy. When we came round the corner it was smoking, and the driver looked in the bag and found the acid. We don't get paid enough for this.''

The team immediately stopped their run and drove round to BIU headquarters to complain to Mr. Burgess.

Ms Smith said: "You are not allowed to dump anything hazardous. We get it all over the Island, but we are getting a lot of it at Fairylands.

"They think because we pick up garbage, they can treat us like garbage. Every day we are dealing with stuff like this and as workers, we've had enough. It's a nervous ordeal and people's lives are being endangered every day.''

Mr. Scott told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "We've been made aware of this incident and my directive is to confirm the address of the property.

"We're going to be writing to the householder once we've received a report from the Health and Safety officer as to the danger and strength of the acid and we'll point out to the householder we have the authority to refuse to collect.

"This applies to all householders who put anything in the waste stream that has the potential of injuring collectors and we can take the decision to refuse to collect."