Human error, negligence led to Vizag gas leak: Forensic report

HYDERABAD: Human error and negligence were responsible for the gas leak from an LG Polymers plant in Vishakapatnam last Thursday that killed 12 people and sent hundreds of others to hospital, forensic experts said on Sunday after scouring the site for clues to the disaster.
According to the preliminary findings of the Andhra Forensic Science Laboratory, negligence in adding auto-polymerisation inhibitors in the styrene storage tank and failing to maintain the temperature below 20 degrees centigrade during the lockdown led to the gas leak.
Forensic experts told TOI that styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that can leak at high temperature and evaporate easily into the atmosphere as vapour, should be mixed with tertiary butyl catechol (TBC) to prevent self-polymerisation. During the lockdown period, TBC wasn’t added to the storage tank.