29 workers hospitalised after gas leak in Thoothukudi fish processing plant in Tamil Nadu
The Hindu
29 women workers affected by gas leak in Thoothukudi seafood processing unit, stable and receiving treatment in hospitals.
A total of 29 women workers of a seafood processing unit on the town outskirts had ‘moderate breathing problems’ following gas leak in the plant in Thoothukudu around Friday midnight.
22 of them, who are undergoing treatment in 3 private hospitals in the town, are safe and stable, and 7 were discharged after being administered first-aid.
Operation of the plant has been suspended following the “minor gas leakage” of gas even as officials from various departments are inspecting the unit employing 300 workers, mostly women, at Pudur Pandiapuram on Thoothukudi – Madurai Highway, the officials here said.
After processing and packing the seafood, the workers had their food around 11.10 p.m. on Friday. Even as they had their late dinner, they suffered “suffocation and burning sensation” in the eyes after “white coloured” smoke partially engulfed the dining hall. All 29 workers — 21 from Kumbakonam and 8 from Odisha — were rushed to three private hospitals in Thoothukudi Town.
“While 4-of them are under observation in the intensive care unit others are in the general ward where treatment is going on to neutralise the toxicity caused by the gas. All of them are stable,” said officials attached to the Department of Public Health, who visited the victims in the hospitals.
An official attached to the seafood processing unit said the “gas leak” was caused by suspected short circuit in the cooling unit. “After inhaling the gas, the affected workers were rushed to three hospitals and 6 of them returned immediately after first-aid,” the official claimed. He categorically denied that ammonia leakage had caused the problem.
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.