The Blommer Chocolate Company in downtown Chicago says it evacuated employees and called the fire department this morning to handle some smoldering cocoa. There were no injuries. That was not the case over the weekend when a Blommer worker died and two others were hospitalized because of noxious fumes. Those are not the fumes most Chicagoans associate with Blommer – the ubiquitous smell of chocolate.
Though some thought even that scent was a hazard when the Environmental Protection Agency went after Blommer for air pollution. Many Chicagoans lamented that the filters installed in Blommer's smokestacks would take away the aroma. All the recent Blommer news got us wondering why, judging by our noses, the chocolate smell has gone nowhere. We put the question to George Czerniak in the EPA's Chicago office.