Corrosion of storage tank’s valve led to acid leak in Thadi village: Report
VIJAYAWADA: The leakage of chlorosulphonic acid from a storage tank of a private pharma firm in Thadi village has been traced to a corrosion of the upper drain valve of the level indicator.
Factories department authorities inspected the premises of Admiron Life Sciences Pvt, Ltd., soon after the mishap at 9.15 am on Thursday. They found that the firm’s 20 kilolitres capacity storage tank’s level indicator’s upper drain valve was corroded, which had led to the leakage of nearly 50 litres of chlorosulphonic acid lasting 30 minutes. At that time, the storage tank was having six kilolitres of acid in it.
Officials said that as the acid started leaking from the corroded valve into the atmosphere, the staff poured wet sand, which resulted in fumes billowing. On realising their mistake, they used dry sand to stop the fumes. They said that when acid gets exposed to humidity either in the atmosphere or otherwise, it turns into fumes.
Visakhapatnam joint chief inspector of factories J. Siva Sankar Reddy said “We have carried out a preliminary inquiry into the mishap and noticed that corrosion of the upper drain valve of the level indicator of the storage tank caused the leakage. As it got exposed to humidity, it turned into fumes.
Fortunately, none has been injured and there was no major impact. We will call for an explanation from the firm and based on its reply, we will serve a notice to check for deviations with regard to maintenance and violations of safety norms.”
It may be noted that Visakhapatnam district has had 19 major accidents in hazardous industries. Though the district administration is going for an ‘offsite emergency plan’ for all 19 MAH industries in about three months by roping in a private agency, the mishap underlines the need for developing ‘on-site emergency plans’ and also ‘offsite emergency plans’ cluster-wise for hazardous industries.
Last year’s state crisis group meeting, chaired by the then chief secretary Nilam Sawhney, underlined the need for emergency offsite and on-site plans for all hazardous factories. The meeting resolved to pursue factories to prepare such plans if they did not have any. It also recommended hiring of qualified persons, alarms on tankers transporting hazardous chemicals, periodical mock-drills for on-site/off-site emergencies and storage of hazardous chemicals only in small tanks to ensure industrial safety in the state.
