A day after one person died and two were injured in a bulk drug unit at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City (JNPC) in Parawada, two persons died and one was injured in an accident at Smilax Laboratories on Friday.
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The deceased were identified as Ajay Kumar, a chemist from Bobbili, and D. Satyanadh, a helper from Odisha. The injured, Srikanth of Vizianagaram, was shifted to hospital.
Deputy Chief Inspector of Factories K.B.S. Prasad said the incident took place at around 1.30 a.m.
As per preliminary inquiry, there was a power-cut at around 11.45 p.m. on Thursday in the unit following which the air-conditioning system tripped and switched off.
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“At around 1.30 a.m., Ajay and Satyanadh entered the clean room, where there was a leakage of Methylene Dichloride (MDC), which they inhaled and fell unconscious,” said Mr. Prasad.
Since the air-condition system was not working, the room was filled with MDC fumes, and the oxygen levels were down, he added.
After some time, Srikanth too entered the room and fell unconscious. All the three were pulled out by other workers and shifted to a hospital, where Ajay and Satyanadh were declared “brought dead,” said Parawada CI Raghuveer Vishnu.
‘Standard procedure ignored’
As per initial investigation, it looked like the workers did not follow the standard procedure in switching on the air-conditioning system after power was restored.
Had the air-conditioning system worked, the toxic fumes would have been sucked out of the room, he observed.
On Thursday, Ch. Sridhar (32) died and two others were hospitalised after inhaling poisonous gas that was released following an accident at Vijayasri Organics.
After a gap of almost two years, fatal accidents were reported at the JNPC on two consecutive days. Two workers had died and three were injured in a fire accident at Azico Biophore in 2017.