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| Chlorine gas leak leaves 103 sick in Mumbai |
| BS Reporters / Mumbai/ New Delhi Jul 15, 2010, 00:47 IST |
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As many as 103 people fell sick early today after inhaling chlorine gas leaking from a cylinder stored in the Mumbai Port Trust (MPT) premises at Sewri. Some of the affected people were discharged after treatment. Currently, 78 people are recuperating, of which eight are in the Critical Care Unit due to respiratory problems and 14 in the Medical Intensive Unit due to throat problems.
MPT, police and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation have launched a joint probe into the incident. Besides, a 45-member team of the National Disaster Response Force has been brought in from Pune to figure out how to safely dispose the remaining cylinders.
Police sources said the cylinders were stored at a warehouse for hazardous cargo. The building is flanked by the sea on one side.
“Out of 105 cylinders that have been found, five still have chlorine in them. We are trying to neutralise them on the spot,” said S A Ahmed, assistant commandant of the National Disaster Response Force. “One container takes six hours to neutralise and these should be cleaned by tomorrow morning,” he added.
For more than six hours, firefighters tried to neutralise the gas, filling the air with sodium hydroxide sprays. The major fear: that there are more than a 100 cylinders similar to the one that caused this morning’s disaster in the same warehouse.
“That is supposed to be an empty cylinder of chlorine, but sometimes you have residual chlorine which remains in the cylinder and that leaked out,” explained Rahul Asthana, MPT Chairman. “They were not taken by the importer and they are lying confiscated here in the hazardous cargo godown.”
All the affected persons, including college students, MPT staff and firemen, were taken to King Edward Memorial Hospital, JJ Hospital and MPT Hospital, police and fire brigade sources said.
The condition of eight persons admitted at JJ Hospital was said to be critical. However, there are no casualties so far, Dean of JJ hospital T P Lahane told reporters.
Meanwhile, the chlorine leakage has got the shipping ministry on its toes to make sure that no hazardous material is being stored for long in any other port. “We are passing an order to all the ports to get rid of any inflammatory material that has been lying with them for more than 60 days, and also ensure that people take back their delivery in a time-bound manner,” shipping ministry’s joint secretary, Rakesh Srivastava, told Business Standard.
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