According to the published report in the Worthington Daily Globe, Ammonia leak sends JBS Swift workers to hospital, 25 workers were sent to Worthington Regional Hospital and 9 workers were transported to Sanford Luverne Community Hospital. The ammonia leak apparently occurred a little before 10:00 p.m. Tuesday night. Normally I would have first hand information on this because JBS Swift is where I work but since I took a vacation day today I had to read about it in the paper.
Hopefully the workers exposed to the ammonia will not have any long term health problems. An ammonia leak is serious and can be very deadly if immediate action is not taken to evacuate anyone who could be exposed. Many years ago (I’ve been there 23 years) I had the experience of being involved in an ammonia leak at the Swift plant. I did not require any medical treatment but remember vividly the burning sensation in my eyes and throat as I was momentarily exposed to a blast of leaking ammonia. The employees were also evacuated during that leak.
MNOSHA has been been informed of the incident according to JBS Swift human resources manager, Jenny Anderson-Martinez, but is unsure if they will make a visit to investigate. I hope they do come and investigate and review the company’s Process Safety Management (PSM) program. The federal OSHA website says this about the PSM standard:
Unexpected releases of toxic, reactive, or flammable liquids and gases in processes involving highly hazardous chemicals have been reported for many years in various industries that use chemicals with such properties. Regardless of the industry that uses these highly hazardous chemicals, there is a potential for an accidental release any time they are not properly controlled, creating the possibility of disaster.
To help ensure safe and healthful workplaces, OSHA has issued the Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals standard (29 CFR 1910.119), which contains requirements for the management of hazards associated with processes using highly hazardous chemicals.
Since JBS Swift uses huge amounts of ammonia as a refrigerant they must comply with the PSM standard. This standard is meant to protect the workers and the surrounding community since an accidental release could drift into populated areas. There are miles of piping and hundreds of valves in the system at JBS Swift so it requires constant monitoring, preventive maintenance, training and updating. You can not be too vigilant with this system because the potential for disaster is so high if there is a major failure. Again, I hope MNOSHA makes a visit to do a hands on investigation so that we have complete answers to what caused this leak and what steps are being taken to prevent another incident. I certainly be asking a lot of questions.
Peace & solidarity
CHC
[...] JBS Swift receiving a citation and a nominal fine. I wrote about that incident in a previous post, JBS Swift workers evacuated. Workers were evacuated and hospitalized during that incident also and the cause of the leak was [...]