Panic after gas emission in Lucknow factory

By IANS

Lucknow : Emission of an unidentified poisonous gas from a factory in Lucknow has caused panic following the death of a worker and manifestation of abnormal symptoms among at least nine workers.


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The factory owner has been absconding after shutting the PVC pipe unit since Monday when one of the workers died.

Preliminary findings suggested the gas was chlorine, District Magistrate Chandra Bhanu said Saturday.

The official, who visited the factory as well as the homes of the victims, told IANS: “Going by the account of the workers, the factory owner appears to be a habitual offender as it is learnt that some workers had earlier quit the factory after they suffered fits, cramps or showed abnormal behaviour after inhaling the emission from the factory boiler.

“We have ordered a magisterial probe and also urged scientists at the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC) to carry out a technical study,” he added.

Police have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The factory owner has also been charged under certain labour laws, while the factory has been sealed.

Workers living in Gulab Khera village, barely three km from the factory on the city outskirts, said two of them fainted while some raw material was being melted in the factory boiler Sunday.

They were sent off to their homes without being administered proper first-aid or being rushed to a hospital.

Chotu, 19, was taken by his family to Kanpur, where doctors referred them back to Lucknow but he died Friday before he could taken to any specialist.

“My brother Amit Chaurasiya who was among the victims and was brought home in an unconscious state, initially started behaving very unusually – almost like a dog and then he started tearing off his clothes,” Shivbadan, a Gulab Khera resident, told IANS Saturday.

Five other workers from the same village complained of symptoms like dizziness and nausea.

“The affected persons turn so irritable at times that they even tend to display abnormal tendencies,” said a villager.

All of them were admitted to different hospitals by their respective families. However, after the district administration took note of the incident, all five were shifted to the King George’s Medical University here Saturday.

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