29 women faint due to ammonia gas leak at private fish processing plant in Thoothukudi

THOOTHUKUDI: 29 women, including five from Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu and 16 female employees from Odisha State, fainted due to an alleged ammonia gas leak in a private fish processing plant on Friday.

The private fish processing and exporting company is located in the Pudoor Pandiya Puram area of Thoothukudi where more than 500 women from different parts of Tamil Nadu and other states work.

In this case, an ammonia gas cylinder exploded due to an electrical accident in the plant, due to which ammonia gas spread throughout the fish processing plant, five women from the Kumbakonam area of Tamil Nadu and 16 women from Odisha state who were working there, fainted.

Collector G. Lakshmipathy after enquiring said it's basically a fire accident.

Nobody suffered injury, but some of them could have inhaled smoke and were taken to nearby private hospital by the management.

Firefighters extinguished the fire at around 2.30 am.

A team of officials from Departments of Industrial Safety and Health and Revenue are inspecting to find out the cause of accident, the Collector said.

District Fire Officer Mano Prasanna said responding to a fire call at 11.30 pm on Friday, the brigades rushed to the spot.

Initially, some of them engaged in the processing unit tried to put out the fire by themselves. But later they smelt gas and called the TNFRS department.

Fire may have been caused by an electrical short circuit.

People experienced suffocation and eye irritation and fainted.

Following this, more than 29 female employees were admitted to two private hospitals in Thoothukudi, namely AVM Hospital and Rajesh Tilak Hospital and Arulraj Hospital, by Nila See Put Company vehicles and ambulances.

Thalamuthu Nagar police are investigating the incident.

Further details are awaited.

Earlier, in December, the Tamil Nadu government had ordered to temporarily shut down Coromandel International Limited in Ennore after an ammonia gas leaked from the fertiliser manufacturing facility.

Panic gripped Ennore near Chennai when residents felt a strong smell and an ammonia gas leak was detected in a sub-sea pipe of Coromandel International Limited on Tuesday night.

Five persons felt uneasy and were shifted to a health facility.

"Ammonia gas leak detected in a sub-sea pipe in Ennore. This was noticed and stopped. The production head says the leak caused a strong smell and five people felt uneasy and were shifted to a health facility," the Tamil Nadu Environment and Forest Department said after the incident. Police and the District Administration along with the unit arranged ambulances and public transport for managing any emergency. Some people also received first aid due to eye irritation and breathing difficulties. The action was taken after people held a protest in Ennore complaining about an ammonia gas leak.

(Inputs from Agencies)