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Twenty-four children were injured after a pungent chemical liquid was discharged from a tanker in Tonami, Toyama Prefecture, on Monday afternoon.
Police said the accident happened at around 4:30 p.m. TBS quoted witnesses as saying that a liquid burst out of the top of the tanker, splashing the children who were walking along the roadside.
When police arrived on the scene, the tanker had pulled over to the side of the road and liquid was still coming out.
TBS said the children showed symptoms of nausea. They were immediately transferred to hospital, but all were allowed to return home later.
The chemical liquid was vinyl acetate and the truck was transferring it to a waste disposal company.
© Japan Today
15 Comments
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Okinawamike
On January 31, 2009, the Government of Canada's final assessment concluded that exposure to vinyl acetate is not considered to be harmful to human health.
Not toxic, but so what? Why was it not properly secured? Who needs anything splashed on them from a truck passing by? Big time fine please!
darknuts
Uh oh. Toxic Avengers?
smithinjapan
Well, let's look at the first and foremost obvious problem: what the hell is a tanker doing on a street where kids walk to school right beside it?
Cortes Elijah
smithinjapan at Jun. 11, 2013 - 03:57PM JST Well, let's look at the first and foremost obvious problem: what the hell is a tanker doing on a street where kids walk to school right beside it?
Well Smithinjapan that actually is not an obvious problem. There is many places dangerous vehicles have to travel past children...train lines for example go past petrol refineries with 1000s of students on them. The world is a dangerous place.
The most obvious problem is: how the hell does a chemical transportation tanker just splash its load all over people, no matter what age they are. It must have been big to cover 24 people. They should look into the tank design and fix this asap before a more dangerous liquid or load is spilt!
LH10
gross. so careless
C Harald Hansen
Good thing it wasn't something horrendous like an acid... How terrible it must have been before they knew what it was though.
Fadamor
Canada's claims notwithstanding, here's an excerpt from the MSDS for Vinyl Acetate:
http://www.inchem.org/documents/icsc/icsc/eics0347.htm
Vinyl Acetate Handling Codes: R11 (Highly Flammable); S16 (Keep away from sources of ignition, no smoking); S23 (Do not breathe gas/fumes/vapour/spray (appropriate wording to be specified by the manufacturer)); S29 (Do not empty into drains); S33 (Take precautionary measures against static discharges)
Get Real
Probably yaks intent on dumping it in a ditch somewhere. Bet the driver's work clothes were spotless.
Frungy
What I don't see any mention of is that the driver of the tanker did anything to help the kids immediately. Where I'm from drivers of these tankers are required to carry a manual detailing what to do in case of an accidental spill, human contact, etc.
It just seems like common sense to me for the driver to be prepared in case there's a traffic accident or a fracture in the tank or some other unfortunate accident.
But it seems like in this case the tanker driver was completely and utterly unprepared. Given that the company knew it was transferring a hazardous substance, could realistically have known that in some small percentage of cases there would be spills (leaks, traffic accidents, etc.) it was duty-bound to provide instructions on proper steps to be taken, and training to drivers along with proper emergency prophylactic medication. The lack of these constitutes gross negligence on the part of the company, and I would definitely advocate suing them with the goal of making them institute this sort of policy.
I note with interest that the company isn't named, whereas it is JT's policy to name criminals automatically. I wonder why a lower standard is being applied here? This company has certainly acted criminally.
Fadamor
Not sure what the rules are in Japan, but here we have to have a copy of the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) on-site for every chemical we have. Regarding spills, here's what the MSDS for Vinyl Acetate says:
gelendestrasse
Nasty! Why on earth wasn't the hatch secured? That dude is not up for submarine duty!
sensei258
Actually, the use of the word "liquid" in the headline is not necessary since splashing already implies it.
praack
well the US safety sheets do remark on eye irritation and respiratory issues if in direct contact for short periods of time
so though there will probably not be any lasting issues- they were exposed and did suffer an adverse event - and felt the affects
Frungy
Yes, these are what I'm talking about. Every workplace handling hazardous chemicals is also required to have emergency showers (fed with purified water, the water going into storage tanks now the sewers), and trucks back home also need to have a small inflatible emergency shower (pull tag, inflates automatically, step in, get sprayed down with neutralizing liquid - enough for 4 or 5 uses). Its stored under the trucks in a box and packs down quite small.
It just seems like these precautions are non-existent in Japan, or are yet another example of precautions that should or do exist but aren't being followed.
With a lot of substances the difference between blindness and being fine can be as little as a minute, and that's too long to wait for emergency services to arrive.
A Realist
For crying out loud it was an unfortunate accident, and it could happen anywhere. Fortunately Vinyl Acetate is not an exceptionally toxic substance and it is highly unlikely the children will suffer any serious or long term effects.