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Plant Spill 2.5 Tons of Chemical

By KEVIN P. CRAVER
kcraver@nwherald.com

RINGWOOD – Rohm and Haas has determined that Monday’s chemical accident released slightly more than 2.5 tons of vinylidene chloride into the air.

Facilities Manager Tom Bielas said Friday that the accident – which occurred about 10:30 p.m. Monday when a safety feature kicked in to relieve pressure in a kettle – released 5,045 pounds of vinylidene chloride and 661 pounds of methyl acrylate, a second chemical.

The kettle in the building on the plant’s northeast side is used to make Serfene, the company’s trademark food packaging.

While the plant has resumed manufacturing its other products, such as solvent-based adhesives and vehicles for ink cartridges, Serfene production will remain shut down until investigators get to the bottom of the cause of the pressure buildup, Bielas said.

"There’s a lot of information to be reviewed, and it is important that we do identify the root cause and identify corrective actions, so we’re taking the appropriate amount of time to get to that answer," Bielas said.

Bielas said air tests taken along the plant’s perimeter within 20 minutes of the release never exceeded 4 parts per billion, well below the threshold at which the plant would alert the community and local emergency authorities of a vinylidene chloride or methyl acrylate accident.

But that’s not how neighbor Jaclyn Burkhardt sees it – or, more appropriately, smelled it.

Living a few doors down from the 5005 Barnard Mill Road manufacturing plant, Burkhardt said she and her roommates didn’t need to read the next day’s paper to learn about the accident.

"All of a sudden we get this toxic, caustic smell," Burkhardt said. "We thought it might have been gas, but it didn’t smell like gas. We didn’t know what it could be."

Vinylidene chloride, also known as 1,1-dichloroethylene or 1,1-DCE, has a sweet odor, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Short-term exposure can result in stinging eyes and difficulty breathing. Longer exposure has been linked in some studies to liver damage, kidney damage and possibly cancer.

Wonder Lake resident Joe Rosner said he called 911 after he smelled a strong odor and noticed his eyes were stinging while driving through town. He said he did not understand why Rohm and Haas only detected trace amounts.

The minimum concentration needed for a human being to smell vinylidene chloride ranges between 190 and 500 parts per million, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Rosner learned the same after doing an Internet search several days later.

"I said, well, this is different than what we’ve been told. Several times different," Rosner said. "It didn’t make sense to me that it was the little bit they said. If that was my house, I wouldn’t have spent the night."

Bielas said he could not speculate as to who smelled what, but he pointed out that methyl acrylate has a much smaller odor threshold at 20 parts per million, according to OSHA-approved materials safety data sheets. The chemical causes eye and skin irritation, and long-term exposure can result in organ damage.

Rohm and Haas reported the accident to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency shortly after it happened because the release from the kettle exceeded 100 pounds, the state reporting limit for vinylidene chloride.

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