178 employees fall sick after inhaling poisonous gas at Anakapalli in Andhra Pradesh

PCB says no gas leak; cause of gas leak a mystery

As many as 178 women employees, working at Quantum Seeds, the second unit of Brandix India Apparel, were taken ill after allegedly inhaling some poisonous gas at the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Atchutapuram in Anakapalli district, on Friday.

The district administration, Anakapalli Police and the Pollution Control Board (PCB) officials are yet to ascertain what was the gas which allegedly leaked, and its source.

Initially, it was suspected that ammonia gas might have leaked from a nearby chemical factory. Police sources suspected that the poisonous gas might have blown towards the apparel SEZ due to wind, which led to the incident.

Soon after the incident, the women workers were shifted to hospitals in Anakapalli and the SEZ for treatment. The employees complained of stomach pain, and burning sensation in their eyes and nausea.

However, later in the evening, PCB officials said they had checked chemical units nearby and found that there was no indication of a leak on their premises. According to the polution board officials, the recordings were normal and all the employees in the chemical unit were fine.

“If there was a leak in the suspected chemical factory, its employees would have fallen sick and the people in the surrounding areas would have been affected. But the situation is normal over there. So, the suspected gas leak remains a mystery,” a PCB official said.

According to sources from the district administration, they were verifying if there was any gas leak from the AC unit or the Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) in the seeds unit. The officials were also mulling to check whether there was any case of food poisoning at the unit.