RESIDENTS of a Larnaca neighbourhood were evacuated on Sunday after an ammonia leak from a local storage warehouse. No one was hurt.
At around 9am, residents called police to complain of a pungent smell. Police arriving on the scene immediately closed the street (near a football stadium), cordoned off the area and evacuated local residents to a safe range of 300 meters.
Also despatched were Fire Department personnel, an EMAK (Special Rescue Squad) team and a contamination expert from the Health Ministry. The leakage was found to have been caused by faulty cylinders in the warehouse’s refrigeration system.
The warehouses belonged to Cypressa, a food importer and distributor company. The premises were due to shut down and relocate to an uninhabited area later this week. However, police confirmed the warehouse was closed as of yesterday following Sunday’s incident.
It took about two hours for technicians to repair the damaged cylinders, although neighbours dwellers were kept away from the site for some time longer as a precaution. They were finally allowed back home in later in the afternoon.
A few people complained of minor eye irritation, but there were no serious cases requiring medical treatment, police said.
Worried residents protested that for the leakage to occur the owners of the warehouse must not have implemented the necessary safeguards.
But a statement released yesterday by the governmental Workplace Inspection Department said there was no cause for concern, as most of the leaked ammonia was dissolved in water before escaping into the atmosphere. The department also said the warehouses had been inspected regularly in the past and had been found to meet all maintenance criteria.
“The leakage was caused by fractures in the compressed cylinders…and as such was therefore something that could have not been detected during a typical inspection,” read the statement.
The department also conceded that the quantity of the leaked ammonia could not be accurately estimated for the time being, although it added that the initial investigation of the site showed the leakage was relatively limited.
“This is also confirmed by the fact that no serious problems were posed in the area,” the statement quickly concluded.
Yesterday, the Greens demanded the immediate relocation away from inhabited areas of warehouses using or storing hazardous chemicals. The party also charged that, in breach of the law, a list (compiled by government agencies) naming these premises was not published.
According to a treaty signed by Cyprus in July 2003, people have the right to have access to information pertaining to the environment and public health.
Ammonia is a chemically reactive gas that is very soluble in water and is much lighter than air. Cold vapour (e.g. from leaks) may however be denser than air. Although there have been incidents of exposure to harmful concentrations of ammonia in various countries, there have been few fatal accidents.
Ammonia is characterised by a pungent odour and is detectable by most people at levels of about 50ppm in the atmosphere. Although workers become tolerant to this effect and are able to work without distress at levels up to 70ppm, currently the recommended exposure limit for ammonia is 25ppm in the UK.
At 400ppm, most people experience immediate nose and throat irritation, but suffer no permanent ill-effects after 30-60 minute exposure. A level of 700ppm causes immediate irritation to the eyes, and a level of 1,700ppm will give rise to repeated coughing and can be fatal after about 30 minutes’ exposure. Exposure to concentrations exceeding 5,000ppm for quite short periods can result in death.
