Ricky fell ill on the SSAB construction site - not yet recovered

Ricky Davies coughed up blood. He is a tracked tractor driver and was one of the first to fall ill in the industrial area where SSAB is to build an electric steel plant in Luleå.

- It has gotten somewhat better, but I am still quite limited, he says.

It is not yet known what made him and the other workers sick.

The steel mill is to be built in an area where the county administration in Norrbotten has warned of heavy contamination in the ground. Ricky Davies was doing excavation work and was at the lowest point in the ground. Dense clouds of smoke arose around his machine.

When he walked out the gates in February, he was seriously ill. The person who took over his work machine also developed symptoms and later needed hospital treatment.

A police investigation into a suspected work environment violation is underway. So far this year, there are 46 people who have suffered from symptoms, according to Åse Schoultz, senior prosecutor at the National Unit for Environmental and Work Environment Cases, who leads the preliminary investigation. No one is currently suspected of a crime.

Several victims with whom DN has previously been in contact have reported headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue and shortness of breath. In May, the company's representatives were presented with their analysis of why people became ill.

- We assess that what has caused these disease symptoms is the combination of fine-grained dust, low humidity, cold, wind and seasonal respiratory virus, said Carl Orrling, technical director and responsible for SSAB's conversion office, at a press conference.

Several experts have criticized the steel company's conclusions in DN's review. Even the National Accident Commission (SHK), which during the summer has done a so-called preliminary study, now rejects SSAB's investigations into the cases of illness.

SSAB has several times decided to pause operations at the construction site. The work was completely suspended at the beginning of April to gradually resume from the end of May. At the end of June, a temporary stop was made after alarms about low levels of hydrogen cyanide in the air, a colorless poisonous gas.

- I think it's too damned. They run for a while, then the new alarm comes, says Ricky Davies.

He wants to know what it is that made people sick.

SSAB generally does not comment on individuals' medical conditions or other personal information, but writes to DN that the health and safety of employees and contractors is the company's highest priority.

The company emphasizes that they take their overall statutory responsibility as developer and construction environment coordinator very seriously, and that there are established routines for coordination and risk assessments, among other things.

For some time now, Ricky Davies is back at work, but not at SSAB's large construction site in Luleå.

- I have just managed to work for eight hours. Then I had to go home and go straight to bed and sleep until the next day. This is how my life has looked this summer.

At his worst, he feels afraid of dying.

- My eardrums hurt so much that I feel dizzy. Then it's just like the signals from the back don't go all the way up. Some days the whole body can tremble, he says.