The survivors of LG Polymers styrene monomer leak incident still live under fear and many are yet to recover from the trauma, even after two years of the incident.
On May 7, 2020, Styrene monomer vaporised due to intense heat and leaked out of a storage tank vent in the LG Polymers plant located in R. R. Venkatapuram in Visakhapatnam city. The incident happened at around 3 a.m., when people of the city were in deep slumber, primarily affecting the five neighbouring villages of R. R. Venkatapuram, Padmapuram, B. C. Colony, Gopalapatnam and Kamparapalem.
About 12 persons had died, more than 2,000 were affected and about a 1,000 needed hospitalisation. As per a survey conducted by Alluri Sitharamaraju Vignana Kendram and Research Centre, till date more than 30% of the residents in the five villages suffer from anxiety and some psychological issue.
Medical facility
But what concerns the environmentalists and experts from the medical field, is that the health monitoring system has taken a backseat.
“Styrene is possibly carcinogenic and if inhaled in good quantity or exposed for a longer time can lead to a number of health issues related to neurological, psychological, skin, eye or lungs,” said Dr. D. Raghunadharao, Chief Medical Oncologist of KIMS-ICON Hospital.
Recently, Dr. Raghunadharao and a team of experts comprising Dr. V. Ramana Dhara, Indian Institute of Public Health, Hyderabad, Dr. G. R. Sridhar of Endocrine and Diabetes Centre and Thomas H. Gassert, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA, have published a detailed paper in the Journal of Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences, highlighting the health issues pertaining to this case and how to mitigate such disasters.
They pointed out that the authorities concerned failed to collect the baseline data for future monitoring of the case. “It is important to study the immediate toxicity, intermediate toxicity and long term toxicity. But we do not have the baseline data to study and it would be difficult to study the children who will be born to the victims,” said Dr. Raghunadharao.
Dr. K. Padma of Alluri Sitharamaraju Vignana Kendram and Research Centre, pointed out that till date about 50% suffer with headache, about 27% suffer with giddiness, 39% have eye issues and about 30% have skin problem.
Ch. Narasinga Rao, State Secretariat member of CPI(M) and founder of ASVKRC, said that the promise for setting up a super-specialty hospital is still in paper and even a full-fledged clinic is missing.
Jagdish Patel of People Training and Research Centre, Vadodara, said that both the Union and the State government have been paying least interest on the occupational health subject. It is time that the Union government ratify the ILO Convention 155.
Action against management
Despite at least six committees including the Committee set up by National Green Tribunal [NGT] and the High Power Committee of the State government concluding that the accident occurred due to gross negligence of the management, so far no action has bee initiated.
“The Committee spoke about faulty design of the tank, lack of basic safety measures and lack of knowledge among the staff to run the plant, so far no action has been taken against the management,” said Mr. Narasinga Rao.
