Visakhapatnam: The mystery gas that caused sickness to 369 woman workers on the shop floor of the Seeds Intimate India Ltd remains unsolved. The 9-member joint committee that has been tasked with identifying the gas and its source could not come to clear conclusions even three days after the incident.
Speaking about the preliminary findings of the panel to reporters at Atchutapuram SEZ office in Anakapalle district on Monday, Industries and IT minister Gudivada Amarnath said the gas leaked into the air-conditioned shop floor through its ducts. The residue of the gas found in the ducts was sent to the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and its report was awaited.
The experts are veering round to the view that the leak was of complex gas that the seeds company might have stored in its premises. For refrigeration, they use ozone-friendly Freon gas. If so, it might not do much harm to the affected women, some of whom were still in hospitals.
An expert on refrigeration is checking the AC systems. The NDRF team also found traces of chlorine in the air surrounding the Seeds unit during the inspection and this was being verified.
“A conspiracy cannot be ruled out. The report from IICT would throw a lot of light into the incident. We will not spare anyone found responsible for the leak,’’ the minister said.
As many as 369 women from 14 mandals were affected. Of them, 215 were discharged from hospital.
A group of people, mostly relatives of the women workers, raised slogans seeking financial help to the families of the victims.
The minister said discussions were on with the management of Brandix India Apparel City in this respect.
Chairman of AP pollution control board AK Parida said sophisticated air quality testing equipment was being installed in Atchutapuram SEZ in the next fortnight. The French-aided equipment will report the gases present in the air and post it to the monitors of the inspection agencies in seconds, he said.
There were 132 red category industries within the Atchutapuram SEZ and 45 them are pharmaceutical industries.
