A gas leakage is among the most feared human calamities of all time. Be it the poisonous gas leakages, the cooking gas leakages or the petroleum gas leakages. Each and every gas leakage brings with it the insurmountable wreckage of life and surroundings. There is no need to give an introduction into the world of grief provided by gas leakages. Let’s have a look at one such incident.
Rat-nibbled gas pipe triggers explosion, 5 of family injured
TNN Sep 20, 2013, 07.18AM IST
PUNE: Five members of a family suffered burn injuries in an explosion caused due to a cooking gas leak in Kondhwa on Thursday morning. The gas had leaked through a 2mm hole on the rubber tube that a mouse had nibbled. The poorly ventilated kitchen added to the explosion’s intensity.
The injured include Ram Karan Sahani (54), his wife Sunita (48), son Dinesh (26) and daughters Deepali (17) and Sheetal (16). Sahani, a labourer , and his family lived in survey number 9 at Kapilnagar, Ambedkar chowk in Kondhwa.
Sudam Pachorkar, inspector (crime) of the Kondhwa police station told TOI that Sunita was the first to wake up on Thursday and she used a lighter to light the stove to heat water, following which the explosion occurred around 7.45 am. He added that the impact of the explosion was such that Sunita, her husband and three children, who were sleeping, suffered burn injuries. “The explosion blew off the roof and doors of the two-room house and caused severe damage to the property and household items,” he said.
The explosion woke up the neighbours. Jayashree Jagtap, who lived next door, said, “We woke up hearing a loud noise and found the glasses on our windows broken. When we came out, we saw that Sahani’s house was damaged . We went inside and found the family crying in pain. They had suffered burn injuries. With the help of local people, we rushed them to a nearby private hospital.” They were later shifted to a private hospital in Kasba Peth and then to Sassoon General Hospital.
Local residents also alerted the police control room. Police officials rushed to the spot and, later, sealed the place as a preventive measure.
One of the victims, Deepali, who suffered minor injuries and was discharged from the hospital after treatment, returned to her house and broke into tears on seeing the damage. She said, “My mother used to switch off the regulator after she had finished cooking. On Thursday, we woke up to an explosion and we had burn injuries on our hands and legs. I do not know what went wrong.”
While Sunita suffered 50 % burn injuries, Ram suffered 31% burn injuries. Dinesh and Deepali received treatment for 2% and 5 % burn injuires. Sheetal sustained 6% burn injuries . “Dinesh works in a cyber cafe while his sisters are students. We have lodged a complaint of accidental burns,” said Pandharinath Mandhare, senior inspector of the Kondhwa police station.
The oil marketing company has confirmed that the explosion was caused due to leakage of cooking gas. They told the police that the leak occurred as the rubber tube was bitten by a mouse.
Mandhare said, “The petroleum company has informed us that the rubber tube was bitten by a mouse and had a 2mm hole. Probably, Sunita did not notice the hole. Also, the ventilation in the house was poor as the kitchen window was closed and the door was locked. However, the cylinder and regulator were intact” .
The cylinder gas LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas) contains mercaptans. Mercaptans are special compounds having characteristic smells, added to detect a leakage if any. But in the case of directly piped gas, natural gas is supplied which doesn’t contain any odoriferous compounds added to it, so leakage detection is not possible. Thus if there is a gas leak due to possible gnawing of a rodent, on a gas pipe, it becomes impossible to detect. Also since these gas pipelines are buried in the ground, they are more prone to attack by rodents. Rodents are nocturnal and more active underground.
The above-mentioned incident could have been easily avoided. The pipes could have been rodent resistant, the mice should have been kept away, the victim should have checked before switching on the stove. But all these are afterthoughts. The only thing which counts is that the rubber pipe was chewed upon and it led to a calamity.
From all the above, one thing can be made really certain. The pipes have to be made rodent resistant. Having said that, people may feel that incorporating rodenticides in these pipes is the only option. But Rodenticides are harmful to surrounding as they leach out fumes and also have a short shelf life and are not 100% efficient.
There is 100% efficient solution available with C Tech Corporation. We have come up with a unique product known as Combirepel™ .
Combirepel™ , an extremely low toxicity and extremely low hazard rodent aversive can be incorporated in the gas tubing and pipelines, hindering the rodents from attacking them. It is an anti-rodent additive for masterbatches specially developed for a range of polymeric and coating applications including films, pipes, wires, and cables. It can be incorporated into nearly all base polymers like HDPE, LDPE, PVC, PE etc.
The product is compliant with ROHS, ROHS2, ISO, REACH, APVMA, NEA, EU-BPR, and FIFRA exempted.
The mechanism followed by our product is repellence by attacking their olfactory senses and it does not aid to kill the target species. The products do not interfere with the working of the end application it is used in. They are stable at high temperatures; they do not leach out or produce any toxic fumes and have a long shelf life of 5-40 years as per the application.
It looks as if this green chemistry based product is tailor-made for this application. Don’t you feel?
Contact us at technical.marketing@ctechcorporation.com if you’re facing problems with rodents and get best remedies to combat the pest menace.
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