Eight Utah workers were sent to the hospital following a chemical reaction at Pro Pac Lab located at 3804 South Airport Road in Ogden, Utah. Pro Pac Lab makes vitamins and mineral supplements, a process that leaves chemical residue on the machinery used to make the vitamins and minerals. On Friday, December 19, 2009, workers went through a routine clean up around 7:15 a.m. and bleach mixed one of the chemical residues left on the machines to create a dangerous ammonia gas.
According to KSL news, employees evacuated the building to escape the ammonia gas. Once the workers got into the fresh air, the symptoms cleared quickly. Emergency personnel responded and investigated the cause of the chemical reaction. They believe that bleach came into contact with nitrogen dust to create the ammonia gas.
“That ammonia gas is what caused people to get a burning sensation in their mouths, nose, in their eyes, or lungs depending on how much they breathed in during that process,” said Chad Tucker, deputy chief of the Ogden City Fire Department.
Pro Pac Lab is looking into manufacturing processes and cleaning processes that will prevent this problem in the future.
From this report, several questions are raised. Company officials said they will look into the cleaning process to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future; but what are they going to do until they figure out the exact cause? It sounds like workers did a routine cleaning similar to this each day, but this particular time the bleach mixed with the wrong chemical and caused the reaction. Officials should be 100% sure that the this reaction will won’t happen again before they allow workers to continue working in that environment.
With respect to the eight injured. I recommend that they contact a Utah accident and injury attorney who will help them receive compensation for their injuries and explore their options in case the reaction causes long term damages.
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