Two accidents in quick succession in which three persons died at separate units at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City, Parawada, have raised concern among the public over safety apparatus at chemical units in Visakhapatnam and its neighbourhood.
A day after one death on Thursday, two workers died in another accident on Friday. Many say safety is going for a toss due to lack of supervision and complacency on the part of the managements. There is also allegation that standard operating procedures (SOP) are not being implemented meticulously.
Establishment of an Industries Emergency Response System (IERS), hazard analysis laboratory and regular safety audit, proposed long ago, are yet to take off. After spurt in accidents during the erstwhile TDP rule, a decision was taken to make safety audit mandatory. At that time, the fire safety mechanism at all the hazardous units was also brought under scanner and notices as to why the units should not be shut down for failure to obtain clearances for fire safety was also issued.
Subsequently after a lull for sometime, accidents have been occurring at regular intervals. “There is no periodic inspection due to shortage of manpower and casual approach. Fatal accidents have occurred at Deccan Chemicals, Payakaraopeta, and Hetero Drugs, Nakkapalli.
CITU charge
However, in none of the cases stringent action has been taken, CITU district general secretary G. Koteswara Rao told The Hindu.
He alleged that the disposal of waste was also not being made scientifically though on record the pharma units claim that they were discharging only the ‘treated’ effluents through a pipeline into the Bay of Bengal.
The JNPC is a specialised cluster developed in the Public-Private Partnership mode. Owing to saturation for new units at the cluster, there has been demand in the industry for taking up construction on second pharma city in the district somewhere between Atchutapuram and Nakkapalli.
When contacted, a senior official of the Factories Department said unlike scattered development of pharma units in and around Hyderabad, JNPC, being a sector-specific cluster, had been designed in such a way to make the hazard risk minimal. He said it was wrong to say that due to compromise on safety guidelines, accidents were occurring.
Causes for leakage
According to B. Madhu, a fire protection expert, any system which uses, generates or contains gas under pressure can develop leaks. But, it all depends on the type of gas being used, its pressure and temperature, any products or reactions generated by the process, where the leak is located, and the quantity of gas that could be released. He said there were many factors for cause of leakage in reactors and injuries to human life.
Besides calling for risk analysis at various stages, he said emergency response system should be put in place at all the workplaces, he said.
Gas detection techniques and technologies had a crucial role to play in the fight to protect a company’s workforce and other assets from damage.
Mr. Madhu said as per reports, if power failed during operation, alternative power sources should have been available to ensure exhausting the gases to be continued. “If gases are released from a reactor, and if it is toxic, it should have vented through a scrubbing system. Owing to a possible runaway reaction, sudden increase in pressure might have resulted in failure of gaskets in most accidents,” he remarked and asked those concerned to work with gas protection device if gas release was imminent.
