6 ms·

Workers at Redmond SpaceX lab exposed to toxic chemicals

178 points by SilverElfin 10mo ago

amatecha 10mo ago
Also covered at https://www.investigatewest.org/a-starlink-lab-exposed-unsuspecting-workers-to-toxic-chemicals-records-show-spacex-didnt-act-until-the-state-got-involved/ https://www.investigatewest.org/a-starlink-lab-exposed-unsus... which appears to be the source
- SilverElfin 10mo ago
  > Starting in 2024, customer support workers reported symptoms that matched the known toxic effects of exposure to several chemicals used in the lab. Douglas Altshuler, a former Starlink customer support associate who lived with Crohn’s disease, experienced an allergic reaction that caused one of his eyes to swell shut. A doctor later attributed his condition to “an unknown chemical exposure,” according to a complaint he submitted to Labor & Industries. SpaceX also received more than two dozen other internal complaints from workers who reported headaches, eye irritation and allergic reactions. Altshuler’s complaint said that he was concerned the chemicals caused two women in the customer support office to have miscarriages and another man to have a liver transplant. InvestigateWest spoke with several former workers who confirmed that at least one woman miscarried. The man who allegedly had a liver transplant could not be reached for this story. This is pretty scary. Who knows what other health problems employees have are related to this issue. And SpaceX won’t comment or share what chemicals were involved? Horrible.
  - amatecha 10mo ago
    Yeah, I found this article about that guy as well, pretty disturbing https://gizmodo.com/spacex-employee-with-crohns-says-he-was-fired-for-needing-the-bathroom-too-often-2000601495 https://gizmodo.com/spacex-employee-with-crohns-says-he-was-...
  - weregiraffe 10mo ago
    [flagged]
  - Reason077 10mo ago
    The Redmond facility apparently works on Starlink satellites, which (unlike Dragon spacecraft) do not use toxic propellants like Hydrazine. Hydrazine is very nasty stuff and even trace exposure can cause eye irritation and conjunctivitis. In any case, it seems strange that customer support staff, who are presumably not trained in haz-mat protocols etc, would be colocated with a lab using toxic chemicals.
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
- jimnotgym 10mo ago
  >It fined the company $6,000. Less than SpaceX spent a lawyers to appeal it. Less than the cost of ventilation. I guess you can look forward to that happening again then! Pro-tip, join a Trade Union, your country doesn't protect you
  - CapitalistCartr 10mo ago
    This is the answer to most of professional life. Unionize! If you don't manage people, join a union. If you think where you work is fine so you don't need a union, that's when you need one, before something like this happens.
    - jimnotgym 10mo ago
      I manage people and am in a Union. I still have a boss, and in a dispute I was able to call on their help
Veserv 10mo ago
Say it is not so. Company that likes illegally discharging wastewater [1][2] run by man who leads companies to dump toxic waste into city water systems as soon as the inspectors leave [3][4][5] with a company that has multiple times the industry-average injury rate and actively sought to bury it by ignoring mandatory reporting requirements for multiple years [6] defends and denies poor safety practices that expose workers to dangerous chemicals and fires them for the audacity to complain about illegal unsafe working conditions. This repeated pattern of illegal, safety-regressive behavior must be a fluke. Frankly, if the leadership creates cultures that harm their workers and where retaliation against workers was normal, then you would expect that to occur at other companies they run. Like, some kind of successful lawsuit where workers complained about their supervisors calling all their black coworkers the N-word and all the swastikas on the walls then were reprimanded for bringing it up [7] where the judge legally declared the companies "conduct was reprehensible and repeated"[8] and awards in excess of the standard maximum were "appropriate in light of the endemic racism at the Tesla factory and Tesla's repeated failure to rectify it"[9]. See, the rampant disregard for their workers and retaliation against workers is not at all in their corporate DNA all the way to the top. Just your regular old California Bay Area company where workers are called the N-word [10] and get retaliated against. [1] https://payloadspace.com/spacex-back-up-to-its-neck-in-discharged-wastewater/ https://payloadspace.com/spacex-back-up-to-its-neck-in-disch... [2] https://www.sacurrent.com/news/federal-government-fines-elon-musks-spacex-148000-over-environmental-issues-35554176/ https://www.sacurrent.com/news/federal-government-fines-elon... [3] https://fortune.com/2025/11/08/boring-company-drilling-fluid-fine-wastewater-elon-musk/ https://fortune.com/2025/11/08/boring-company-drilling-fluid... [4] https://fortune.com/2025/11/12/elon-musk-boring-company-tunnels-injuries-osha-citations-fines-rescinded-nevada-governor-office-documents-altered/ https://fortune.com/2025/11/12/elon-musk-boring-company-tunn... [5] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26184164-tbc-state-letter/ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26184164-tbc-state-l... [6] https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/spacex-musk-safety/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/spacex-m... [7] https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748-7/context https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06... [8] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748-12.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06... Page 29 [9] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748-12.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06... Page 1 [10] I mean seriously, where do you even find people who will use the N-word in the Bay Area. Did they put all their job ads in the KKK and Neo-Nazi Bay Area Facebook groups? Is it like one of those anti-spy tests where you have people say: "Death to (insert country leader here)", but you have to use the N-word to get hired?
water-data-dude 10mo ago
Ok, but fascinatingly I got hit with a popup for a Fox News browser add-on that makes it so you can "trust your search results"
apolloartemis 10mo ago
I am a huge fan of SpaceX and I think that establishing a multi-planetary civilization is the most important thing to do, and, I’ll say bluntly, will save lives. But I think that knowingly causing miscarriage of a pregnancy should be investigated as manslaughter.
- RobRivera 10mo ago
  Are you advocating for prolife policy, and advocating for a woman to lose her right to choose?
- foxglacier 10mo ago
  [flagged]
  - seg_lol 10mo ago
    What does that have to do with causing someone else to miscarry?
    - RobRivera 10mo ago
      >But I think that knowingly causing miscarriage of a pregnancy should be investigated as manslaughter. A) op didnt clarify who was doing the initiation of a miscarriage. There's unclarified ambiguity. B) charging manslaughter for one person, and providing medical support for another for the same action of facilitating a miscarriage enters a very real legal discourse know as the entire debate around women's rights. If you would like to know more you can review the legal precedents associated therein.
- NedF 10mo ago
  [dead]
- nicoty 10mo ago
  I know I'll sound like a rube but somehow it rubs me the wrong way that the rich and powerful are spending billions trying to establish multiplanetary civilisations despite the fact that we still have plenty of unfixed problems here at home that also deserve attention and resources, if not more so.
zug_zug 10mo ago
> Altshuler’s complaint said that he was concerned the chemicals caused two women in the customer support office to have miscarriages and another man to have a liver transplant. It seems multiple generations have really downplaying the risk of some of these chemicals. The whole "man up" "osha is a joke" attitude really seems painfully helpless when there small amounts of chemicals that are undetectable by the senses that can kill you, damage your mind irreparably, damage your ability to have healthy children. Heck even our gender expression is controlled by a small amount of chemicals called hormones. I think some fragile egos hate to admit it, but we're entirely powerless to these chemicals unless we can detect and avoid them. However when they are invisible and often odorless in dangerous doses, number in the 10s of thousands, and are very slow/expensive to detect (i.e. requiring $10k+ mass spectrometers), the only feasible answer I can think of is collective action (i.e. stronger laws, or perhaps unions if those fail). I think such events of pollution need to be investigated as criminal when they have credibly ended lives. (P.S. I wonder if any women didn't have fullblown miscarriages, but had a baby with other issues that can't necessarily by tied to this exposure. This is something you see in other exposure cases)
kudeyar 10mo ago
[flagged]
fuzzfactor 10mo ago
Regulations and unions are still never enough no matter what you do. There must be no shortage of integrity & knowhow. The problem arises when the chemicals on site add up to a need for professional handling exceeding that which exists at the site. The top person has to actually know what to do, and actually step up to the plate and do it in complete co-operation with the ones at the front lines handling the materials. And everyone in between. Another whole level of risk management needs to focus on exposure radius when it can extend beyond the confines of the recognized hazardous site. The degree of risk relative to proximity can build to where many off-site occupants are not informed when things escalate beyond a minimal amount. Which almost never happens ideally, even when it's a purpose-built chemical facility. In an "office" building it can be a real slippery slope. Soldering a few cables or treating PCBs may not seem like a problem for an occasional prototype. And then with growth pressure you get a dozen people doing it all day every couple months. Pretty rough, but at least it's not every day and at least it's not every month. How you get there and where you go from there is really the defining characteristic.
Havoc 10mo ago
Move fast and break...people

178 points by SilverElfin 10mo ago

Also covered at https://www.investigatewest.org/a-starlink-lab-exposed-unsuspecting-workers-to-toxic-chemicals-records-show-spacex-didnt-act-until-the-state-got-involved/ https://www.investigatewest.org/a-starlink-lab-exposed-unsus... which appears to be the source

SilverElfin 10mo ago
> Starting in 2024, customer support workers reported symptoms that matched the known toxic effects of exposure to several chemicals used in the lab. Douglas Altshuler, a former Starlink customer support associate who lived with Crohn’s disease, experienced an allergic reaction that caused one of his eyes to swell shut. A doctor later attributed his condition to “an unknown chemical exposure,” according to a complaint he submitted to Labor & Industries. SpaceX also received more than two dozen other internal complaints from workers who reported headaches, eye irritation and allergic reactions. Altshuler’s complaint said that he was concerned the chemicals caused two women in the customer support office to have miscarriages and another man to have a liver transplant. InvestigateWest spoke with several former workers who confirmed that at least one woman miscarried. The man who allegedly had a liver transplant could not be reached for this story. This is pretty scary. Who knows what other health problems employees have are related to this issue. And SpaceX won’t comment or share what chemicals were involved? Horrible.
- amatecha 10mo ago
  Yeah, I found this article about that guy as well, pretty disturbing https://gizmodo.com/spacex-employee-with-crohns-says-he-was-fired-for-needing-the-bathroom-too-often-2000601495 https://gizmodo.com/spacex-employee-with-crohns-says-he-was-...
- weregiraffe 10mo ago
  [flagged]
- Reason077 10mo ago
  The Redmond facility apparently works on Starlink satellites, which (unlike Dragon spacecraft) do not use toxic propellants like Hydrazine. Hydrazine is very nasty stuff and even trace exposure can cause eye irritation and conjunctivitis. In any case, it seems strange that customer support staff, who are presumably not trained in haz-mat protocols etc, would be colocated with a lab using toxic chemicals.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
jimnotgym 10mo ago
>It fined the company $6,000. Less than SpaceX spent a lawyers to appeal it. Less than the cost of ventilation. I guess you can look forward to that happening again then! Pro-tip, join a Trade Union, your country doesn't protect you
- CapitalistCartr 10mo ago
  This is the answer to most of professional life. Unionize! If you don't manage people, join a union. If you think where you work is fine so you don't need a union, that's when you need one, before something like this happens.
  - jimnotgym 10mo ago
    I manage people and am in a Union. I still have a boss, and in a dispute I was able to call on their help

Veserv 10mo ago

Say it is not so. Company that likes illegally discharging wastewater [1][2] run by man who leads companies to dump toxic waste into city water systems as soon as the inspectors leave [3][4][5] with a company that has multiple times the industry-average injury rate and actively sought to bury it by ignoring mandatory reporting requirements for multiple years [6] defends and denies poor safety practices that expose workers to dangerous chemicals and fires them for the audacity to complain about illegal unsafe working conditions. This repeated pattern of illegal, safety-regressive behavior must be a fluke. Frankly, if the leadership creates cultures that harm their workers and where retaliation against workers was normal, then you would expect that to occur at other companies they run. Like, some kind of successful lawsuit where workers complained about their supervisors calling all their black coworkers the N-word and all the swastikas on the walls then were reprimanded for bringing it up [7] where the judge legally declared the companies "conduct was reprehensible and repeated"[8] and awards in excess of the standard maximum were "appropriate in light of the endemic racism at the Tesla factory and Tesla's repeated failure to rectify it"[9]. See, the rampant disregard for their workers and retaliation against workers is not at all in their corporate DNA all the way to the top. Just your regular old California Bay Area company where workers are called the N-word [10] and get retaliated against. [1] https://payloadspace.com/spacex-back-up-to-its-neck-in-discharged-wastewater/ https://payloadspace.com/spacex-back-up-to-its-neck-in-disch... [2] https://www.sacurrent.com/news/federal-government-fines-elon-musks-spacex-148000-over-environmental-issues-35554176/ https://www.sacurrent.com/news/federal-government-fines-elon... [3] https://fortune.com/2025/11/08/boring-company-drilling-fluid-fine-wastewater-elon-musk/ https://fortune.com/2025/11/08/boring-company-drilling-fluid... [4] https://fortune.com/2025/11/12/elon-musk-boring-company-tunnels-injuries-osha-citations-fines-rescinded-nevada-governor-office-documents-altered/ https://fortune.com/2025/11/12/elon-musk-boring-company-tunn... [5] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26184164-tbc-state-letter/ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26184164-tbc-state-l... [6] https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/spacex-musk-safety/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/spacex-m... [7] https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748-7/context https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06... [8] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748-12.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06... Page 29 [9] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06748-12.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-3_17-cv-06... Page 1 [10] I mean seriously, where do you even find people who will use the N-word in the Bay Area. Did they put all their job ads in the KKK and Neo-Nazi Bay Area Facebook groups? Is it like one of those anti-spy tests where you have people say: "Death to (insert country leader here)", but you have to use the N-word to get hired?

water-data-dude 10mo ago

Ok, but fascinatingly I got hit with a popup for a Fox News browser add-on that makes it so you can "trust your search results"

apolloartemis 10mo ago

I am a huge fan of SpaceX and I think that establishing a multi-planetary civilization is the most important thing to do, and, I’ll say bluntly, will save lives. But I think that knowingly causing miscarriage of a pregnancy should be investigated as manslaughter.

RobRivera 10mo ago
Are you advocating for prolife policy, and advocating for a woman to lose her right to choose?
foxglacier 10mo ago
[flagged]
- seg_lol 10mo ago
  What does that have to do with causing someone else to miscarry?
  - RobRivera 10mo ago
    >But I think that knowingly causing miscarriage of a pregnancy should be investigated as manslaughter. A) op didnt clarify who was doing the initiation of a miscarriage. There's unclarified ambiguity. B) charging manslaughter for one person, and providing medical support for another for the same action of facilitating a miscarriage enters a very real legal discourse know as the entire debate around women's rights. If you would like to know more you can review the legal precedents associated therein.
NedF 10mo ago
[dead]
nicoty 10mo ago
I know I'll sound like a rube but somehow it rubs me the wrong way that the rich and powerful are spending billions trying to establish multiplanetary civilisations despite the fact that we still have plenty of unfixed problems here at home that also deserve attention and resources, if not more so.

zug_zug 10mo ago

> Altshuler’s complaint said that he was concerned the chemicals caused two women in the customer support office to have miscarriages and another man to have a liver transplant. It seems multiple generations have really downplaying the risk of some of these chemicals. The whole "man up" "osha is a joke" attitude really seems painfully helpless when there small amounts of chemicals that are undetectable by the senses that can kill you, damage your mind irreparably, damage your ability to have healthy children. Heck even our gender expression is controlled by a small amount of chemicals called hormones. I think some fragile egos hate to admit it, but we're entirely powerless to these chemicals unless we can detect and avoid them. However when they are invisible and often odorless in dangerous doses, number in the 10s of thousands, and are very slow/expensive to detect (i.e. requiring $10k+ mass spectrometers), the only feasible answer I can think of is collective action (i.e. stronger laws, or perhaps unions if those fail). I think such events of pollution need to be investigated as criminal when they have credibly ended lives. (P.S. I wonder if any women didn't have fullblown miscarriages, but had a baby with other issues that can't necessarily by tied to this exposure. This is something you see in other exposure cases)

kudeyar 10mo ago

[flagged]

fuzzfactor 10mo ago

Regulations and unions are still never enough no matter what you do. There must be no shortage of integrity & knowhow. The problem arises when the chemicals on site add up to a need for professional handling exceeding that which exists at the site. The top person has to actually know what to do, and actually step up to the plate and do it in complete co-operation with the ones at the front lines handling the materials. And everyone in between. Another whole level of risk management needs to focus on exposure radius when it can extend beyond the confines of the recognized hazardous site. The degree of risk relative to proximity can build to where many off-site occupants are not informed when things escalate beyond a minimal amount. Which almost never happens ideally, even when it's a purpose-built chemical facility. In an "office" building it can be a real slippery slope. Soldering a few cables or treating PCBs may not seem like a problem for an occasional prototype. And then with growth pressure you get a dozen people doing it all day every couple months. Pretty rough, but at least it's not every day and at least it's not every month. How you get there and where you go from there is really the defining characteristic.

Havoc 10mo ago

Move fast and break...people