[Miyata]

Originally Posted by Thermodynamics

boils at 145 C much higher than water. So the level of Styrene in open atmosphere would have been significantly lower to cause such a disaster

That certainly made it less dangerous. It also has a flash point of just 31C...lesser than the ambient temperature and consequences related to that might be what we witnessed! While there has been no report (so far) of fire/explosion, there could have been enough ploymerization and vaporization.

A More volatile gas would have certainly been lot more lethal. Hope all those producing/storing/transporting/using various gases take notice and perform appropriate checks.

[Thermodynamics]

More details are emerging. It looks like a failure in temperature control.

Technical glitch in refrigeration unit caused mishap, says district collector

link

A number of questions would surface now. Why didn't they have a secondary utility as a worst case scenario, even cooling water could have brought down severity. This incident occurred after the lockdown was relaxed, did they deploy 33% of employees. we understand the plant isn't running but they could have resumed full staffing of tank farm and EHS team. Let's see how things develop.

Another question that comes to my mind is, we have been through one of the worst accidents in history of chemical industries, the Bhopal, but still we haven't segregated industries and residential regions. Why do we allow industries to function in residential areas or the vice versa. For example, in Bangalore, if you go to Jigani area you'll see what I mean.

[aim120]

Originally Posted by Thermodynamics

Another question that comes to my mind is, we have been through one of the worst accidents in history of chemical industries, the Bhopal, but still we haven't segregated industries and residential regions. Why do we allow industries to function in residential areas or the vice versa.

You forget that many companies and factories open in the outskirts and decades later people buy houses and build apartments around them.
Same goes to people buying houses in lake bed or on the path of airport or airforce base runway.

After aero india crash last year, people where asking to shift the venue or even the base. That base was operational even before independence, with 30km distance from the city. Land sharks are waiting for Jakkur airfield to stop, so they can build apartments. Anything one to blame is the over population of india along with greedy land sharks.

[Thermodynamics]

Exactly. The real estate sharks even claim a premium for proximity to industries.

Sometime back, a friend wanted to buy property near Jigani-Bannerghata. The first thing I suggested him was to check how far the industrial belt is. A minimum of 5km should be there. Next check the terrain, you should not be downstream. Pick a higher ground as compared to the industrial belt. Because low lying areas will likely suffer groundwater pollution. And in case air pollution/ toxic gas leaks, lighter gases rise up and dissipate faster, but heavier gases/vapors flow downstream just like rain water and occupy low lying areas forming pools of dense cloud.

[SKavuri]

A desk top computer need to be shudown before switching off the power. Similarly a plant need to be "shutdown"and not switched off to be safe. I am not sure this plant needed a safe shutdown procedure.
Plus, a minimum number of staff should be available to attend to alarms or some way to attend to them.
The design itself - I doubt any major shortcomings. Safety studies are typical requirement during design of any chemical plant. LG is a big company and would not compromise on safety, hopefully.
Perhaps there are not sufficient layers of protection. Perhaps negligence when they restarted after shutdown. Perhaps equipment malfunction, due to poor maintenance?
I hope a team with subject-matter-experts does the investigation.

[MegaWhat]

Extremely unfortunate incident.

Seems that the plant was running without environmental clearance.

https://indianexpress.com/article/in...n-nod-6399440/

In an affidavit submitted to the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), the company admitted that as of May 10, 2019, the unit did not have a “valid environmental clearance substantiating the produced quantity, issued by the competent authority for continuing operations”.

It also acknowledged that it had expanded the production at the plant “beyond the limit of environmental clearance or changed the product mix without obtaining prior environmental clearance as mandated under the EIA notification, 2006”.

The company had then also undertaken that it would not “repeat any such violation in future”.

I hope this was a one off incident.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

I remember the aircrash due to the wasp's nest closing the air speed sensor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgenair_Flight_301

Most of us work in industries which have run continuously. Many of the processes go on continuously. I work in cement, never have we ever faced that cement is produced and kept in stock above a week.

Let us all be careful in restarting the operations at our respective plants and be ready for the unexpected. A lot of accidents may happen/operating parameters may skew because of long-stalled machines, degraded seals, unknown contaminants which we have never experienced in life.

[Carpainter]

Seems like these events are cropping up simultaneously as industries are opening after a long hiatus. There is a boiler blast at NLC thermal power station in Neyveli. Link. Then there is paper mill gas leak in Chhattisgarh. Link. Is it because they are opening with reduced staff strength or is there some laxity in safety protocols. I think factories now should resume operations only after full inspection to prevents anymore disaster like these. When hospital beds are either reserved for covid patients or not available at all, we can not afford to have mishaps one after the other.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by alpha1

To be frank, in India due to lax governance and a joke called justice no manufacturer really wants to setup a comprehensive people safety detection and mitigation systems and incur a large capex and significant opex (understandably so).
.

There have been plenty of similar incidents that have happened worldwide. Let us not deride India and its administrative/judicial systems unnecessarily. Let the investigation happen and then we will see.

[aspire]

I spent my childhood living in a township next to a company which manufactured close to 1200 tons per annum of Styrene and used to have a storage of approx 1000 tonnes of Butadiene!
I never knew Styrene was so dangerous, later on the plant manufacturing Styrene was shut down, the company found purchasing to be cheaper.
Don't recall a single accident ever, there was an event during the 71 war when a woman was caught trying to sabotage the plant, the folk lore was she had come from Pakistan.
Sadly the plant shut down circa 2000 Some years back the local administration got the stored Butadiene and Styrene released with the the help of some old staff of the company due to safety concerns.

[wheelguy]

Guys, there's much to it than the simple discussions going on here. There are real-estate and political interests behind it which obviously cannot be discussed here. There are ongoing land disputes happening in those localities since many years(even decades) regarding the Simhachalam's land-pool. Consider this post as an unsubstantiated claim and ignore it if you are about ask for the substantiation.

Note: Request moderators to delete the post if necessary.

[pgsagar]

News just in that National Green Tribunal has ordered LG to deposit Rs. 50 crore with Vizag Court, to get the investigative/legal proceedings rolling. The tragedy seems to be behind us now but the story is the same again, residential areas abutting industrial units. I have not been to that part of town where this plant is but a friend told me they have houses right next to the plant. We blame industries but why on earth do people buy plots next to a factory? You don't have to be a literate person to know gases/chemicals are hazardous. My house is 11 KM aerial distance away from the LG plant and I felt pungent smell and eyes burning for a brief duration on the early hours of 7th, when wind blew in our direction.

In the instant case, the word on the street is that LG let junior contract folks handle critical restarting procedure which might have played a part in this tragedy. This is only hearsay/speculation at this point in time and we cannot conclude one way or the other until the official findings are out. Though this is at much smaller scale than Bhopal but culprits are again multinationals. I hope LG comes clean and does not try to sweep things under carpet.

[MegaWhat]

A lackadaisical attitude towards safety and unprecedented circumstances make for a potentially dangerous combination. I hope I'm wrong and that the management indeed did everything that was possible to keep the people safe. But if I'm not, I hope other plants take note and are extra careful.

Any idea if other countries which have had such a strict lockdown as ours have reported such incidents after reopening?

Originally Posted by pgsagar

We blame industries but why on earth do people buy plots next to a factory? You don't have to be a literate person to know gases/chemicals are hazardous.

I'm equally surprised how residential property prices shoot up near airports. I mean it's usually noisy and congested, and it's not like you're going to take a flight daily that you prioritise being close to it. It's not a bus stop or a railway station. I understand the commercial property rates, but residential?!

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by MegaWhat

I'm equally surprised how residential property prices shoot up near airports. I mean it's usually noisy and congested, and it's not like you're going to take a flight daily that you prioritise being close to it. It's not a bus stop or a railway station. I understand the commercial property rates, but residential?!

Its not the airport so much as the economic activity that happens around airports. Unfortunately, our airports are a little out of town and it will take a bit of time for the activity / policies for these to get into place.

[Sutripta]

Though out of town, the airport guarantees that transport to and from town will not be as bad as other out of town places.

Sutripta