59 students take ill after inhaling fumes in Ratnagiri

Sixty people, including 59 students and a woman, were rushed to hospital after they inhaled fumes that had leaked from a storage tank in Jaigad, 45 km from Ratnagiri, in coastal Maharashtra, on Thursday afternoon. Three students are being treated in intensive care but are stable

MUMBAI: Sixty people, including 59 students and a woman, were rushed to hospital after they inhaled fumes that had leaked from a storage tank in Jaigad, 45 km from Ratnagiri, in coastal Maharashtra, on Thursday afternoon. Three students are being treated in intensive care but are stable.

59 students take ill after inhaling fumes in Ratnagiri

The fumes, identified as ethyl mercaptan, had leaked from the JSW Port, according to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), although the port has denied any such leak. “We have been told by JSW Port that ethyl mercaptan had leaked from their facility but it was not a major leak,” said V N Motghare, joint director, MPCB.

Ethyl mercaptan, a colorless and flammable liquid with a pungent odour, is used as an odorant for natural gas and as a starting material for plastics, insecticides and antioxidants.

The fumes were inhaled by students of the Madhyamik Vidya Mandir and Arts and Commerce Junior College in Nandiwade village near the JSW Port. Local authorities knew something was amiss when the students started complaining of headache, nausea, giddiness and a burning sensation in the eyes, said Ratnagiri additional collector Shankar Barge.

Mohak Jog, an electrical engineer from Nandiwade, drove two students to Ratnagiri in his car. He said, “Many of us felt uneasy. We pooled cars and moved the students to bigger hospitals.”

Ratnagiri Superintendent of Police Dhananjay Kulkarni said no FIR has been registered so far. “We are conducting an investigation.”