The police have registered an FIR on LG Polymers India Pvt Ltd (LGPI) for failing to adhere to safety protocols which led to styrene chemical vapour leak in its RR Venkatapuram plant and the death of 10 people on Thursday.

The arm of South Korean LG Chem apparently ignored its own norms when the 230-acre facility was shut down during Covid-19 lockdown. The perils of storing huge quantities of styrene have been overlooked. This is the preliminary view of Visakhapatnam police whichregistered the First Information Report on the company.

One of the safety protocols of the company states, “Identify hazards and evaluate for risk and communicate to the concerned for immediate rectification.”

It has over 360 employees on its rolls. The police said that there were only 15 operational staff when the mishap happened.

The company has attributed the mishap to the lockdown and the dangerous piling up of the chemical in the storage tank. “Handling of any chemical is guided by well-defined precautions on changes in its form over a period of time under certain conditions and consequences. I think this factor was totally missed by the company,” a senior scientist at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) told Business Line on the condition of anonymity.

According to AP Pollution Control Board, its a self-monitoring plant and better precautions while resuming operations would have averted the tragedy.

LG Polymers has been an integral part of Visakhapatnam’s industrial ecosystem since 1961 when it was established as Hindustan Polymers for manufacturing polystyrene and its co-polymers. It was later merged with Mc Dowell & Co Ltd of UB Group in 1978 and was taken over by LG Chem and was subsequently renamed as LGPI in 1997.

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