Explosion occurs at Tosoh’s vinyl chloride monomer plant in Japan

1:44 AM, 14th November 2011

TOKYO, JAPAN: Tosoh Corporation informed that on November 13 at 3:24 pm, fire occurred at its Nanyo Complex (Nanyo, Yamaguchi), No 2 vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant. An explosion occurred after which fire broke out and the firefighting efforts are still ongoing, it said. Tosoh mentioned physical damage to one employee and its status was not confirmed.

At the time of the accident, it was thought that hydrogen chloride gas was released, but as of 7 pm, readings of the area surrounding the No 2 VCM plant reported levels 1/10 of the threshold limit value. As of 7 pm there has been no such detection reported in surrounding areas close to the Nanyo Complex. As a precaution, all residents of Kudamatsu City and Shunan City (Yamaguchi Prefecture) are asked to remain indoors with windows closed. Tosoh is currently evaluating the effect on product supply.

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