Visakhapatnam gas leak: Human negligence is the cause of the incident!

Visakhapatnam gas leak: The Forensic experts who have come to Visakhapatnam where the LG Polymers gas leak incident has happened has found that the accident has occurred due to human error. The expert's committees have said that the styrene gas leak happened entirely due to human negligence during the coronavirus lockdown.

As reported by The Times of India, a team of Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratory (APFSL) visited the site and gathered evidence in the last two days. The team was led by Dr RK Sarin and T Suresh.

While the preliminary report states that the cause of the leakage occurred due to negligence in adding an auto polymerisation inhibitor in the styrene storage tank and failing to maintain the temperature below 20-degree centigrade. It is learnt that the experts told that TBC or tertiary butyl catechol must be added with styrene to prevent self-polymerisation, which was not done during the lockdown period. It was noted that the investigators stated that whatever TBC was left was rendered ineffective.

After the self-polymerisation started, a chemical reaction followed shooting up the temperature to around 150-degree centigrade.

"The cooling process was also not maintained. This led to the generation of enormous heat. Vapours started coming out through the breather," a senior forensic official of APFSL have reportedly told. The official added that there should have been an operator sitting in the room to verify the process. Th experts further revealed that on the day they visited the site, the temperature was between 120 degrees to 150 degrees centigrade in the storage tanks.

The state Director General of Police Gautam Sawang said that they were investigating into the angle of human negligence.