Five workers at the Atalco Alumina plant in Gramercy, Louisiana were severely burned in a chemical accident on Sunday, January 7.
Three Workers in Critical Condition Due to Burns
The incident occurred around 3:43 p.m. at the Atalco Alumina plant at 1111 E. Airline Highway in St. James Parish, as workers changed a valve that was under pressure. A high-pH caustic solution reportedly burned multiple employees in an incident that lasted for two straight minutes, though more details are unknown at this time.
Five employees were taken to the hospital for burns, including three who were airlifted with critical injuries from burns.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) is investigating the incident, which appeared to be contained on site with no impact to surrounding communities.
Gramercy Alumina Plant Explosion Injured 29 Workers in 1999
The Atalco plant, owned by the Atlantic Alumina Company, is the last operating alumina refinery in the United States, according to its website. The plant processes bauxite into alumina, which involves the caustic leaching of bauxite at high temperatures and extreme pressure.
Due to the highly-flammable materials, hazardous chemicals, and volatile equipment involved, plant and refinery work is inherently dangerous and severe burn injuries far too common. Sadly, it’s our experience that plant and refinery accidents are entirely preventable and often due to an operator’s failure to put safety first.
In 1999, an explosion at this same site, then known as the Gramercy Works Plant, operated by Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, injured 29 employees.
The cause of the explosion was excessive pressure in several tanks in the digestion area of the plant. But the official U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration investigation also found that management’s failure to identify hazardous conditions and unsafe practices, or to train employees properly, directly contributed to the accident.
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