​Deadly fumes: On the ammonia gas leak tragedy in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu has witnessed its deadliest industrial ammonia gas leak tragedy , which has so far claimed the lives of eight migrant women workers at a private seafood processing unit in Tiruvallur district. Some of the 68 hospitalised workers are in intensive care on oxygen support. Since the 1980s, the State has battled ammonia leaks in factories every few years, mostly in and around Chennai. Other than in Thoothukudi in 2024, where one worker died, such accidents have at worst led to the hospitalisation of large numbers of people with eye irritation and breathing difficulties. There were no casualties even when an estimated 67.638 tonnes of ammonia leaked from the undersea pipeline of a private company in Ennore during Cyclone Michaung in 2023. The scale of the tragedy at St. Peter & Paul Seafood Exports Pvt. Ltd., Tiruvallur, indicates that the colourless pungent gas may have accumulated in the atmosphere at fatal concentrations. The leak occurred when workers were resting in factory accommodation, on Sunday. Had the incident occurred on a working day, the number of people exposed to the leak from the ammonia pipeline to the ice-flake machinery could have been significantly higher.