 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today, we are going to be talking about the leak of the poisonous styrene gas from the LG Polymer India Private Limited plant in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and we are joined by D. Raghunathan at the Delhi Science Forum. Raghunathan, so there are a lot of questions that are emerging out of yesterday's incident. And the most important question is that from what we know right now has there been any gap in the security measures, has there been a gap in the safety measures that have been taken? Well, as of now, we don't know all the details, but some things we can definitely note. Styrene is normally stored as a liquid at minus 20 Celsius and it was stored in a fairly large tank. Now, what seems to have happened is that the temperature control systems seem to have malfunctioned and the liquid then vaporized, got converted into vapor, which has escaped from the tank in an explosive manner and has spread into the nearby areas. Now, although literature says that this is not fatal in nature, but if concentrations are very high, like it would have been in the vicinity of the plant, then either directly by asphyxiation, by just suffocation or by overdose at very high levels of concentration, it can lead to fatalities. Now, as for the leakage itself, I would have thought that before starting the operation of the plant, there should have been a preliminary safety drill or a safety audit conducted of the plant and a trial run done before full scale operations are started. Now, we don't know exactly what was done, but it looks as if operation was commenced without a very rigorous safety drill or a trial run. And the other question is that should, is there any basic flaw in the way the plant is set up itself? For instance, it is set up very close to areas of residence, there are a number of hamlets in the vicinity and we do know that also a key water reservoir is just about 2 kilometers away from the plant. So, is all this in some ways also quite dangerous? Well, it is dangerous and this is the deja vu time because it harts back to the bobal gas factory and almost exactly what happened in bobal, the union carbide plant there when it was set up was outside the city limits, but the city gradually expanded so that the union carbide plant then became at the center of a population center, which was a very congested area. Very similar thing has happened in Vizag. When this plant was first set up quite some time back when it was known as Hindustan polymers, it was located in the suburbs of Vizag. But now the suburbs have become part of the city itself. So, it is not that the plant was located in the middle of population centers, but population centers were allowed to expand right up to the vicinity of the plant. So, in that sense it is not a citing problem of the plant factory itself, but a citing problem of the city municipal authorities who have allowed population centers to come up to the plant vicinity. Either that or the municipal authority should have told the plant to shift outside, but to allow population centers to come up in the vicinity of the plant is certainly dangerous. I would also like to comment Prashant on the other regulatory infarctions in this plant. Now, as you know, after the Bhopal gas tragedy, there were a slew of legislations regarding citing of the plant, regarding handling of hazardous materials and so on. It looks as if in this case, there has been violation of all the regulations both on the part of the plant authorities as well as on the part of the state regulatory agencies and of the central regulatory agencies. Let me explain this briefly. The plant was taken over by LG from the previous owners and was a polymer plant known to hold and stock styrene which is a non-toxic substance listed under the Hazardous Substances Act. Now, this plant was found to be in contravention of the rules regarding citing and operation of this plant and of the environmental clearance that the plant had. In an affidavit to the state environment authority in November 2019, barely six months ago, LG admitted that it did not have environmental clearance for operating the plant. It is also true that the plant had applied for expansion of the capacity of the plant, moderation of the plant manufacturing process from 450 to about 650 tons per day. They had made these changes without the necessary permissions and clearances. They applied for this to the state environment authority which is not the appropriate place. They should have applied to the center. The state environment authority transferred the file to the center and again in the end of 2019, the centers in the Ministry of Environment and Forest, there's a portal which lists all the applications for environment clearances and there there is a listing which says, it appears that the project proponent is no longer interested in running the plant. That seems to have been the status barely six months ago and suddenly this plant was restarted without any objection from the center, without objection from the state environment agency or by the municipal authorities or by the state government. Now, I feel these are very serious violations of environmental regulations. Let me conclude by saying that just this morning Muslic has run an article by me on the environment impact assessment notification 2020, which is a draft lying with the center. This draft specifically notes that such violations such as amending the process, increasing the capacity, etc. have been known to take place and what the notification does is not to suggest measures by which these violations could be prevented or punitive action taken, but the notification says when such a violation comes to light, we will levy a fine and allow the plant to continue. So, really speaking, what seems to have happened is knowing that this was likely to be the attitude of the center and of the state, LG has continued functioning in violation of the plant of the environment clearances required to be obtained both from the center and the states and all concerned authorities at the central as well as state level have turned a blind eye. And just to ask sort of add to that question, right now that this leak has happened, what are the options before the government as far as this plant is concerned? Yeah. So, as far as I am concerned, this plant is operating in clear violations of the environment impact assessment notifications of 2006, which is the currently operational notification. Under that, this plant does not have clearance, it lacks clearance for expanding production or for the current mode of production of this organization. So, to my mind, three things come to mind. Firstly, I think the plant should be immediately shut down because it is in violation of all these. Which is the demand of the residents also. Right. But more than that, there should be a judicial inquiry into how this plant was allowed to function both by the center and by the state. And because both the central government and the state government has involved, it should be an independent judicial inquiry not subject to any jurisdiction of the central government or the state government. And third, precisely because these are the kinds of violations that are sought to be papered over under the draft EIA notification 2020, this draft should be put in abeyance until this matter is decided. Right. Thank you so much, Rabu, for talking to us. Thank you. That is all we have time for today. Keep watching NewsClick.