Visakhapatnam: A high power committee constituted by the Andhra Pradesh government to probe the styrene vapour leak at the LG Polymers plant here has accused the company of not following safety protocols during the lockdown.
In its 4,000-page report, the committee said that the accident occurred due to uncontrolled styrene vapour release from the M6 tank and qualifies as a major accident as per the the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules, 1989.
Apart from poor design of the tank storing the styrene gas, inadequate refrigeration system, absence of circulation and mixing systems and poor safety protocol, slackness of management and insufficient knowledge among staff of the chemical properties of styrene led to the accident.
Apart from the above-mentioned conclusions, the committee has also observed that the alarm system was not used despite there being a total of 36 activation points, including one at the factory gate. Using the alarm could have alerted the people in the vicinity.
The committee also observed that the factory has absolutely no stocks of inhibitors and negligible stocks of terminators which could have been used to minimize the impact.
The report of the committee is similar to the one prepared by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) appointed team earlier.
