The Tennessee Department of Health is investigating a cluster of illnesses reported by patrons of a Gatlinburg zipline attraction.
Angela Gosnell, Knoxville News Sentinel The Tennessee Department of Health is investigating a cluster of illnesses reported by patrons of a Gatlinburg zipline attraction.
The investigation comes after about 20 people reported illness on CLIMB Works Smoky Mountains’ Facebook and TripAdvisor pages, and on "iwaspoisoned.com," a website that tracks food-borne illness reports.
CLIMB Works Smoky Mountains told reviewers on Facebook the company is working with the Health Department to try to pinpoint whether water contamination or a contagious stomach bug may have caused the illness.
Many reporting illnesses said they believe the well water distributed in jugs to CLIMB Works patrons is to blame.
Carlisle Cox, of Ocala, Florida told the USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee he visited the zipline on July 1 and then returned again on July 4 because the attraction was overbooked and he and his 10-year-old son did not get to ride all of the ziplines before dark.
By the morning of July 6, he and his son were both sick.
CLIMB Works turned over the email addresses of all its patrons for the last month to the Health Department, which sent around its "Sevier County Illness Investigation" survey.
They weren’t working when they were sick, but we don’t know if they were sick a couple of days before or a couple days after," Thompson said, adding that he and his family had been sick recently too, but that they do not drink the water at CLIMB Works.
Thompson said CLIMB Works is refunding admission to patrons who fell ill after visiting the attraction.