One dead, 2 critical after inhaling poisonous gas in fish oil factory in TN

Chennai, Dec 13 (IANS) A migrant worker from Odisha died after inhaling poisonous fumes while cleaning an effluent storage tank at a fish oil production factory in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu.

Two other Odisha natives are stated to critical and admitted at Ramanathapuram Government Medical college in the incident that occurred on Sunday.

Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) of Ramanathapuram, Sheikh Mansoor conducted a preliminary inquiry and stopped the operations of the company immediately.

The department of Industrial safety has commenced an investigation into the matter.

Based on a complaint by Machur Village administrative officer, P. Radha, Thondi police have registered a case against the Managing Director of the company, Shahul Hameed, its operations manager, Mohammed Biswak, factory floor in charge Nakshatra Mari, Bikram Oram, and Maheswaran.

The factory, which is a decade old has been in the business of manufacturing oil and fish powder from fish waste. A total of 80 employees were working in the factory of which 59 are from Odisha, while 14 are from Tamil Nadu and seven are from Karnataka.

Tiruvadanai Thahsildhar, R. Senthivel Murugan while speaking to IANS said: "The preliminary inquiry conducted by me and my team have revealed that poisonous fumes have emanated from the tank. Further investigations will reveal the exact reason for the formation of poisonous gas. The factory has been functioning for over a decade in this place and this is first such incident".

He also said that immediately after the three workers fell unconscious, factory management rushed them to the Thondi primary health centre where they were given first aid treatment and then rushed to the Ramanathapuram Government Medical College. While Nabin Oram died,24, en route to the medical college and the other two--Anil Majith (23) and Jasman Kuthur (21)
are battling for life at the Intensive Care unit of the medical college.