A total of 29 female workers at a seafood processing plant on the outskirts of town had ‘moderate breathing difficulties’ after a gas leak occurred in the factory in Thoothukudi at about midnight on Friday.
As 22 of them were being treated in 3 private hospitals within the town, they are fine and stable while seven patients were discharged after getting first medical care.
According to local officials, the company has stopped production due to “minor gas leakage” but several departments’ officers have visited the factory situated along Thoothukudi – Madurai Highway linking Pudur Pandiapuram with other parts of Tamil Nadu for inspection by officials from different government departments since it is populated mostly by women numbering three hundred.
After processing and packing the seafood, they took their meal at about 11.10 p.m. on Friday night. However, as they ate their late supper, some “suffocation and burning sensation” was experienced by them in their eyes when “white coloured” smoke partially covered the meal room. A total of 29 workers —21 from Kumbakonam and 8 others from Odisha—were taken to three private hospitals in Thoothukudi Town.
“Therefore, four are still in ICU while others are being treated,” explained health department officials that attended to these victims at hospitals. These individuals remained stable throughout though.
“There was a gas leak from our cooling equipment,” said an employee who works at the seafood processing plant where this accident occurred. After inhaling it those affected went to six hospitals including the three mentioned above as well as returned home directly after initial care according to him. He also denied absolutely that there was any ammonia leakage involved here.
Five fire tenders that arrived at the spot around 11.45 p.m. from SIPCOT, Ottapidaaram, Saahupuram, Thoothukudi Fire Stations doused gas leakage with water and cleared the gas by 2 p.m. Two firefighters also suffered suffocation and were admitted to the hospital for treatment. They are stable, the officials said.
However, Public Health Department officials have dismissed it as a mere suspicion adding that when they were brought to hospital, there was no smell of ammonia on them. “Anyway we can rule out the leak of ammonia only after the joint spot inspection to be done by officials drawn from various departments including Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, Revenue, Police, Labour Welfare, Public Health and Fire and Rescue Services,” asserted a senior public health department official.
