It's worth reading just for figure 12 and the accompanying description immediately above it on the previous page.
Do these people not even care about their own well-being? I was stuck in traffic downwind of a semi fire once and it was like breathing death, I've carried an emergency CBRN respirator under my seat ever since. These responders have CBRN in their job title!
Mixed material fires always smell horrible, and I haven't experienced vinyl chloride, but it sounds like it has a typical sweetish chlorocarbon smell, which probably won't trigger a "this might be toxic" reaction for many people. I'm more surprised that they didn't get overcome by the fumes, given that any remaining liquid would be boiling. Maybe they just held their breath...
I would expect the average resident to think that, but not a trained hazmat responder. That's like if I opened the TaylorSwift.mp3.exe in my spam folder and ran it as admin. I should know better.
And these people were shockingly oblivious to the health impacts of their immediate environment.
I cleared out old papers from an empty cubicle next to mine because it was exacerbating my respiratory issues. The person whose cubicle was on the other side of that cubicle had been to see a doctor three times for some infection. After I removed the papers, their infection finally cleared up. They seemed to see zero connection between the two things.
On another occasion, work crews came in to do work in an underutilized section covered in dust. My team was right next to all this and one of my coworkers was coughing all day, obviously in reaction.
I said something sympathetic and she said "Oh, I guess that could be why I'm coughing. It hadn't occurred to me they might be related."
If she realized the papers were making her sick, there's absolutely no reason she couldn't have decided to clean out that cubicle herself and she could have been more obvious about it than I was due to her supervisory position. She was responsible for the team. She could have taken responsibility for the "waste" of papers being left to rot in that empty cubicle.
I did it more surreptitiously because I had no such authority. I spent a week or more getting forms and envelopes out of that cubicle whenever I needed forms and envelopes and quietly throwing out the ones so covered in dust and bent out of shape that they were no longer usable.
Perhaps the other person simply didn't want to complain but my immediate boss went three times for antibiotics and then the last round finally worked "coincidentally" after I cleaned out the cubicle between hers and mine. If she knew the papers were why she was not getting better and just didn't want to complain, then she was too big of a doormat to deserve any kind of supervisory position at all.
I doubt that's the explanation.
I think if they weren't most of them would switch careers immediately.
My first thought was that the odor would obviously signal danger and deter approach, but apparently it has "a pleasant odor at high concentrations."