Working in a chemical factory often feels like wagering one’s life. This feeling is a result of incidents like the one at the Essentia Pharma Company and circulates in the minds of people about the safety of work for all employees in big, red-category industries. The recent hassle at Achyutapuram SEZ, Visakhapatnam, has brought the prevailing concerns of the lack of safety in these industrial getting again highlighted.
There are more than 200 industries in the Visakhapatnam district, but nearly 130 belong to the red category, which implies they are considered high-risk operations. The explosion at Essentia Pharma has brought back memories of the HPCL refinery blast in 1997 when 22 people lost their lives. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu observed that the safety aspects in a particular company were negligent and said that in the last five years, 119 accidents were reported, and as many as 120 people died from them. The whole situation points toward a real need for strict internal safety audits of the red-category industries.
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Safety Procedures: The Need Of The Hour
Chemical plants, most especially those involving high-pressure reactors, are very demanding. Checks must ensure that there is no failure of temperature and pressure recording or indicating gauges. The safety system of rupture discs should be triggered automatically at build-up in pressure and should relieve the pressure without a catastrophic failure. There are, however, accusations that inexperienced workers have been left to do the most critical tasks, thus leading to accidents.
Lack of Preparedness and Inadequate Facilities
What it means is that the Achyutapuram SEZ, which houses top pharma companies in high numbers, does not have enough emergency facilities. Evidently, only one fire engine is there, which is not at all enough to fight against massive accidents. In the very recent case, it was a vapor cloud explosion, due to the lack of proper ventilation, with the electrical panels being present that led to a blast.
Also Read : CM Chandrababu Criticizes Pharmaceutical Industries
Tackling the Roots
The Essentia Pharma incident is being attributed to managerial differences and an insufficient number of old hands at work. In the absence of senior staff, the identification and reaction to the solvent leak got delayed and could have otherwise easily been contained. There is an emerging need to have the monitoring of the place of chemical storage, pipelines, boilers, reactors, and electrical boards by experienced persons round the clock.
Finally, strict enforcement of safety protocols and the establishment of routine audits can prevent such tragedies, otherwise putting at stake the lives of these employees who are the lifeline of various critical industries.
