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Leak of toxic gas on a Seveso site in the Vallée de la Chimie: what happened?

2023-05-04T16:58:22.418Z


A leak of 300 kilos of boron trifluoride was detected at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday on the site of the Arkema factory in Pierre Bénite, classified Seveso high threshold, but the management ensures that the gas did not come out of the walls.


Le Figaro Lyon

As with each incident on this strip of territory south of Lyon, where a dozen Seveso sites coexist, concern again blew over the chemical valley on Tuesday.

At the end of the afternoon, a leak of boron trifluoride, a toxic gas, was indeed detected on the site of the Arkema factory in Pierre Bénite, itself classified as Seveso high threshold.

The incident was declared to the municipality, the prefecture and the fire brigade, including a liaison officer who went to the site.

The workshop's emergency shutdown was immediately triggered by the staff.

"The internal security teams quickly intervened in order to put in place the means of intervention necessary to control the event"

, specifies the company which launched its Internal Operation Plan.

Highly toxic

And for good reason, boron trifluoride, abbreviated BF3, is

"a chemical product classified as acutely toxic by inhalation"

, specifies the Dreal.

Prolonged inhalation of this corrosive can cause pulmonary oedema.

It is used as a catalyst in the pharmaceutical and electronics industry.

"This gas has antioxidant properties and in the presence of humidity, forms dense white smoke"

, specifies the National Institute for the Industrial Environment and Risks (Ineris)

In this case, Arkema uses it for the production of Forane, which is then used in expanding foams, solvents and aerosols.

It is one of the two specialties of the Pierre Bénite plant, along with fluorinated polymers, known for the significant pollution they have generated around the site.

Colorless and non-flammable, BF3 is recognizable by its strong pungent smell.

The French society of emergency medicine considers BF3 as very dangerous for health, being able to cause irreversible lesions, up to instantaneous death.

It is strongly irritating and suffocating.

'No damage'

No bodily injury is to be deplored among the employees of the workshop, who triggered the alert system and were taken to safety.

Arkema also ensures that there is no impact on the environment.

The few hundred kilos of escaped gas, 300 a priori – we still have no precise figures, deplores Jérôme Moroge, the mayor of the town (LR) – would not have crossed the barriers of the site.

Arkema wants proof of this that no call to the SDMIS has been recorded in this regard, while the BF3 produces white smoke on contact with the air.

A large part was

"shot down"

, according to the industrial jargon within the very workshop where the leak occurred, assures the director of the site, Pierre Clousier to

Figaro

.

“The gas was mostly recovered by our sewage network which sucks up and directs the gas, to then be reprocessed at our treatment station

, specifies Pierre Clousier.

The part that passed through was cut down by our curtains of water

.

This device, comparable to hotel sprinklers, for example, creates a water mist that captures the gas.

The situation was completely under control by 6 p.m.

Ongoing investigation

The workshop has not restarted since.

Investigations are underway to determine the origin of the leak, a priori from a

"failing pipe brick"

, perhaps a flange.

Production will only resume once the necessary checks have been carried out.

Arkema teams are preparing an incident report, while a Dreal inspection is scheduled at the scene.

For his part, Jérôme Moroge regrets the absence of precise measurements around the site.

“We cannot count only on the self-control of the industrialist, for these subjects on which we do not have the impression that transparency is total

, sighs the city councilor.

I ask that we go far beyond,

He asks for the establishment of a device controlled by the State, with the creation of a policeman of the Seveso sites, as it exists for the nuclear industry.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-05-04

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