Trial Graphics: Toxic Tort: DPC: TMBA
Trial Graphics: Toxic Tort: DPC: TMBA
Trial Graphics: Toxic Tort: DPC: TMBA
"Toxic Nightmare"
Extreme Evidence
Court TV
3D Animations: TMBA, Inc.
When a hose broke while workers were unloading pressurized chlorine gas from a railway tank car at a plant, about 48,000 pounds of chlorine gas was released over a three-hour period. Conforming with industry standards, the tank car was equipped with a chlorine detector and emergency valves that automatically shut down when high levels of chlorine are detected. However, once the chlorine release occurred, the valves did not shut down automatically and further attempts by the operation manager to shut them off manually failed as well. Experts must uncover what caused the hose to break and why the emergency valves failed to shut.
TMBA created a series of animations based on the CSB investigation and report.
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On the morning of Aug. 14, 2002, many residents in the Blue Fountain Mobile Home Park in Festus awoke to a massive, greenish- yellow cloud that swept through the park and the surrounding community.
A nearby packing plant had just released 48,000 pounds of chlorine gas into the air. DPC Enterprises on Highway 61 South, packages chlorine into canisters, which is shipped to municipalities for use in pools and drinking water.
Fifty-nine days prior, DPC had installed a hose on its tank car to transfer the chlorine gas. Although the shipping certificate indicated that the hose was hastelloy braided, Branham Corp. had actually sent a stainless steel braided transfer hose.
When DPC transferred the chlorine gas from a railcar to a storage tank on its facility using the incorrect hose, the hose ruptured.
Hundreds of homes and businesses were evacuated, and several people went to the hospital, suffering from shortness of breath and eye, nose and throat irritation.
More severe problems included pneumonia and bronchitis. Some children were forced to breathe with nebulizers.
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Saying that better equipment maintenance and quality assurance programs could have prevented last year's atmospheric release of chlorine from DPC Enterprises in Festus, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board today approved its final report and recommendations on the accident and called for industry-wide measures to improve chlorine safety.
Meeting before a public audience that included residents, emergency responders, and company officials, the Board accepted the draft investigative report of its staff and also issued a new recommendation that state agencies convene a review of the health and environmental concerns voiced today by residents. About 100 community members and others attended this morning's meeting in Festus.
The August 14, 2002, release of 48,000 pounds of chlorine from DPC Enterprises caused 63 people from the surrounding community to seek medical evaluation. Some residents at today's meeting offered harrowing accounts of the event and said they had experienced various lingering effects from the accident. The DPC facility repackages bulk dry liquid chlorine from tank cars into containers for industrial and municipal use in the St. Louis area. Spilled liquid chlorine vaporizes readily to form a toxic and corrosive gas.
The CSB report says that DPC installed an unsuitable hose connecting a chlorine rail tanker to equipment at its Festus facility. The hose braiding was made from stainless steel instead of the recommended alloy, Hastelloy C, which looks identical but is resistant to chlorine. While investigators found that a supplier had furnished DPC with an improper hose, they said one cause of the accident was DPC's lack of effective management systems to prevent such a hose from being placed in service.
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