Eleven workers at an electroplating factory in Tainan were sent to local hospitals yesterday afternoon after inhaling chlorine gas, with one of them dying soon afterwards, local authorities said.
First responders arrived at the factory in Anding District (安定) and found 11 people with inhalation injuries after the Tainan Fire Bureau received a report of an accident at 2:15pm, the bureau said.
Many of the victims complained of chest pain and irritated eyes, and were sent to local hospitals to be checked.
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One of them, a man surnamed Lin (林) who fainted after the chlorine gas was released, showed no vital signs by the time he arrived at the hospital and was later pronounced dead, the bureau said.
As of 6:45pm, four of the remaining 10 victims with more serious injuries were being kept in Chi Mei Medical Center's emergency ward for observation and were all conscious.
The six others were treated mostly for inhalation burns and choking, the bureau said, but it was unclear later last night if they had been discharged.
The police and fire services believe that an employee of a chemical supplier who was delivering bleach to the factory mistakenly poured the bleach into a vat storing polyaluminum chloride, and the mix of these chemicals created chlorine gas.
The Southern Occupational Safety and Health Center's officials came up with the same finding and shared it with local authorities, Tainan Labor Affairs Bureau chief Wang Hsin-chi (王鑫基) said in a statement.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration under the Ministry of Labor has ordered the factory to suspend its operations and notified prosecutors about the employer's suspected contraventions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法) and relevant regulations, Wang said.
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