KEY POINTS:
Experts say toxic indoor gasses need to be better monitored after two men died from suspected hydrogen sulphide poisoning from Rotorua's hot pools.
Dorothy Binns, the widow of one of the men, has welcomed a coroner's call to reinvestigate the deaths of her husband Phillip and Philip Ham,
who died in similar circumstances. But she is angry at the delay - her husband died last November, and Ham five months later.
"I'm glad the truth will now come out after all this time," said Binns.
"I don't want it to happen to anyone else. I can't understand why they are still allowed small, enclosed pools like that."
Phillip Binns, 77, died last November while preparing for a dip in a hot pool at Pineland Motor Lodge.
He never made it into the water, collapsing beside the pool after shutting the cubicle door.
Ham, 88, from Takapuna, on Auckland's North Shore, died in a hot pool at Fernleaf Motel in April.
An Environmental Science & Research report showed thiosulphate, a key component of hydrogen sulphide - the gas that gives Rotorua its distinctive "rotten eggs" smell - was in the urine and blood of both men.
The pathologist in each case concluded as an interim finding that the deaths were due to exposure to hydrogen sulphide gas.
Rotorua has hundreds of mineral pools, many of them enclosed, in motels and public baths.
Dr Michael Durand, an expert in volcanic and geothermal gases, said the toxicity of hydrogen sulphide in high concentrations was well known. While a person in a mineral pool might initially smell the hydrogen sulphide, the gas disabled the sense of smell and, in high concentrations, shut down the metabolism.
"You would not know it was about to kill you," he said. "You pass out almost instantly."
Durand said no one was agency responsible for monitoring or controlling indoor air pollution. "Someone needs to be responsible for it."
District coroner Dr Wallace Bain has ordered police to conduct a full investigation around "the use and operation of mineral pools". Rotorua Mayor Kevin Winters welcomed the inquiry and said his council would work closely with police to see if there are any gaps in the legislation. "I think there could be."
He said there were probably hundreds of mineral pools in the area, regulated under the Swimming Pools Act. Gas emissions were regularly tested but he acknowledged there was duplication between the council, the Department of Labour and Environment Bay of Plenty.
"Now, because of the fatalities we need to maintain things better than in the past."
Dorothy Binns said any changes would come too late to save her husband of 55 years.
"I am surprised they have known about this for a long time and haven't been more stringent.
"It's a pity they didn't make changes earlier. It's a bit too late."
The Nelson couple stopped in Rotorua during a trip to visit their daughter in Hamilton. During the evening Phillip Binns went for a soak in a private pool at their motel.
Dorothy Binns later went to find her husband but got no response when she knocked on the locked door.
"I pulled a chair up and looked through the window.
"I could see him lying by the edge of the pool. He hadn't even got in."
She said her husband had always been extremely fit and she never believed suggestions he might have had a heart attack. "We've waited so long for the truth."
While hydrogen sulphide is believed to be safe in the open air, Winters said it had been linked with at least 10 deaths in Rotorua since the 1930s.
They include a honeymoon couple in 1987, an Austrian actress in 2000 and a Wanganui artist in 2003.
A four-year study by New Zealand and United States researchers is under way to determine the effects of long-term exposure to the gas.
The managers of the Pineland Motor Lodge and Fernleaf Motel would not comment, although the latter said his pools were still in use.
