No Alerts From PCB on Toxic Gases From Sigachi Chemical Explosion

Hyderabad: The government has no mechanism to alert, warn, and advise people on personal safety measures in Telangana, in the event of a chemical or an industrial accident such as the one that occurred at Sigachi Industries’ pharma factory at Pashamylaram in Sangareddy district on Monday.

Incidentally, when the devastating explosion occurred in the Sigachi unit, there was no sign of a local crisis group (LCG), whose existence is mandatory as per the Chemical Accidents (emergency planning, preparedness, and response) Rules of 1996 in industrial estates. The responsibilities of an LCG, which is expected to be armed with a local emergency plan for a given industrial pocket, also include providing assistance with technical information of the accident site to help authorities mitigate the impacts of any disaster.

Even fire services personnel, among the first to rush to the scene for rescue work, had no clue what they were dealing with. “Typically, only once we reach an accident site, we try to find out what we are dealing with, the kind of chemicals and so on. And then once we are told what the chemicals are, we look up their industrial number and plan our operations. And that is what happened on Monday, too,” the official said.

According to an official from the fire services, one of the chemicals that was being used in the unit that exploded at Sigachi Industries, was the very corrosive hydrochloric acid, and one of the gases that filled the air after the explosion was ammonia, which can cause a host of health issues if inhaled repeatedly. Even when exposed to it in mild amounts, it can cause a series of symptoms including a runny nose, a scratchy throat, tightness in the chest, cough and eye irritation.

Inquiries with officials from various departments revealed that there were no alerts of any kind issued to neighbouring areas on the immediate fallout from the chemical explosion by any agency, including the Telangana Pollution Control Board, which is mandated with monitoring of air quality in the state.

“It does not take much to find out which way the wind is blowing. If only the PCB officials give as much as a cursory look at IMD’s daily weather updates, they will at least have the basic idea which direction the wind is blowing and may carry harmful chemical fumes and gases. And this is available for the next few days so they can even be forearmed,” an official of the Indian Meteorological Department said.

“If they don’t want to do that, all they have to do is to make one phone call and information on wind speed, direction can be provided immediately. And during monsoon season, typically wind blows in a Westerly and South-Westerly direction. In fact, when someone files for an insurance claim after a fire accident, it is mandatory that the claimant gets a certificate from the IMD on the weather conditions and wind details at the time of the fire. The IMD can help mitigate a disaster; it is just a matter of seeking the basic information, the official explained.

“Incidentally, during the Bhopal Gas Disaster on December 2, 1984, many people lost their lives as they tried to escape by going into the wind instead of going away in search of safety in the direction the wind was blowing. Simple coordination and information seeking and sharing when a disaster strikes, can save lives,” Marri Shashidhar Reddy, a former vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.