Staff fall ill in repeat mishap at jewel firm

Saturday 17 July 2010

News article from Bangkok Post

AYUTTHAYA : Over 3,000 workers at a jewellery factory in Bang Pa-in district have been evacuated, while 50 were rushed to hospital after inhaling a toxic vapour in a repeat of a chemical accident at the plant.

On Thursday 15 July 2010, 300 workers were taken to hospital after a fire broke out in a control room at Marigot Jewellery (Thailand) Co, located in the Hi-Tech Industrial Estate. The workers become sick after inhaling chemical vapour.
 
A 28-year-old male worker, Manoj Korbangklang, died yesterday morning after suffering chest pains. Manoj was among workers evacuated from the factory when the chemical leak occurred. However, he did not go to the hospital.
 
Doctors at Bang Pa-in hospital have yet to determine the cause of his death. After the incident, plant executives told authorities there was no leakage of any dangerous chemical, saying there was only a fire accident during construction work.
 
Despite the accident, the plant resumed operations yesterday with about 3,000 employees turning up for work. Only two hours after work started, staff suffered similar symptoms of breathlessness and fainting after inhaling toxic chemicals.
 
Around 3,000 workers were evacuated from the plant. Fifty people, including some pregnant women, were taken to hospital. Rescue workers yesterday said they faced difficulty in sending workers to doctors because plant management did not allow them to enter the premises.
 
Industry Minister Chaiwut Bannawat and provincial industrial officials inspected the plant yesterday. Mr Chaiwut said the accident took place at a building where construction work was taking place to expand the firm's production line.
 
The minister suspects a spark from the construction work might have started the fire, which caused smoke that made the workers sick. He said the plant called back workers yesterday because they thought the situation was under control.
 
Chief of Ayutthaya's industrial office Prayoon Tingthong insisted there was no chemical explosion or leakage at the plant. Mr Prayoon said construction workers doing welding work accidentally sparked a fire in a big plastic pipe containing chemical dust. The fire spread quickly because the pipe was made from flammable plastic material.
 
Smoke from the blaze was sucked into the plant's ventilation system and emitted outside the room. Marigot Jewellery is not on the list of 74 plants in Ayutthaya registered to use hazardous industrial chemicals, Mr Prayoon said. Pol Lt Col Sompit Siangsawat, a senior forensic policeman, said the vapours that workers had inhaled came from a burned plastic pipe.
 
The chemical dust contained in the pipe was hydrocarbon-based which was not thought to be a life-threatening substance, he said.
Ayutthaya deputy governor Tawee Naritsirikul said he had instructed the plant management to seal the control room and implement safety measures to prevent such an accident from occurring again.
 
He also instructed the firm to take care of the injured workers, 12 of whom are still in hospital, and shoulder all the medical costs related to the industrial accident.