The head of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) issued a warning that the industry is experiencing too many anhydrous ammonia releases. The warning came as a three-member CSB team began an investigation of an incident at a refrigeration plant near Mobile, Ala., last month (GM Aug. 30, p. 14) that caused more than 130 individuals to seek medical help and left four of them hospitalized for an extended period. “We are seeing too many ammonia releases in our daily incident reviews,” declared CSB Chairperson Rafael Moure-Eraso, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to the board only last March 2010 and confirmed by the Senate in June.
“Though many are ‘small’ releases, a high consequence accident that causes multiple injuries to members of the public is a serious one that warrants our examination. Our team (deploying at Theodore, Ala.) will be examining the events that led to the release and ways that the community can be better protected in the future.”
Based on the CSB’s monitoring of media reports, there were four high consequence incidents in 2009 involving the release of anhydrous ammonia, which led to a total of six fatalities: May 14, American Cold Storage, Louisville, Ky., two fatalities; June 20, Mountaire Farms, Lumber Bridge, N.C., one fatality; July 15, Tanner Industries, Swansea, S.C., one fatality, and Nov. 16, CF Industries, Rosemount, Minn., two fatalities.
As for the recent Alabama release, Mobile County Commissioner Mike Dean has called for meetings to allow the public to express their concerns over the danger of such incidents, and said the area needs a better emergency warning system. He also requested $180,000 to allow the county to rejoin an emergency calling system to alert citizens about emergencies and dangerous weather.