Many injured in Samut Prakan ammonia leak

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Many injured in Samut Prakan ammonia leak

By The Nation

 

Ammonia leaked from a storage facilty in Samut Prakan on Monday, with the incident injuring many people nearby and killing a number of chickens in the area.

 

Samut Prakan police were informed of a leakage of the pungent gas in the afternoon from the cold storage facility of Sahathai Hongyen Company, which is located in Muang Samut Prakan district’s Tambon Taiban.

 

The incident was later in the day found to have been caused by human error.

 

Police said that on their arrival at the company there was a large white cloud of ammonia floating out of the control room of the cold storage facility.

 

It was reported from the scene that many workers and other people in the vicinity of the company’s facilities had suffered from eye irritation and nausea as a result of exposure to a large amount of ammonia, while a flock of chickens in the area was instantly killed by the gas.

 

After emergency authorities arrived at the scene, paramedics brought the affected people out of the area for treatment, while firemen tried to stop the spread of the ammonia cloud by sprinkling water into the air.

 

It took an hour to stop the gas leakage but, luckily, no severe injuries were reported as a result of the incident, police said.

 

The police questioned Sahathai Hongyen’s engineer, Sompong Ngew, who told them that the leakage had occurred because his new assistant forgot to close the ammonia valve.

 

Police said they would be summoning the assistant for questioning.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30336351

 

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