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Factory Still Investigating Accident

By KEVIN P. CRAVER
kcraver@nwherald.com

RINGWOOD – The manufacture of food packaging film at Rohm and Haas will not resume until plant officials determine the cause of a Monday evening industrial accident.

No one was injured when a kettle under pressure released vinylidene chloride into the air and liquid on a roof and in a cooling pond about 10:30 p.m. Monday, facilities Manager Tom Bielas said. Vinylidene chloride, also known as 1,1-dichloroethylene, is used to make the packaging compound, known by the trademark Serfene.

"It’s a real complex set of rules we follow to ensure we get to the actual root cause," Bielas said. "It involves a lot of people in the plant, so it takes some time. But we’re not going to run the Serfene process until we understand what caused this."

Manufacturing of other products, such as solvent-based adhesives and vehicles for ink cartridges, was expected to resume shortly, Bielas said Wednesday afternoon.

Bielas said the company still was determining just how much vinylidene chloride was released, although he said it exceeded the 100-pound limit required to report it to state and federal authorities.

Vinylidene chloride is a liquid with a sweet odor, used to make adhesives, synthetic fibers and food packaging, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Liver damage is a potential short-term effect of exposure, and lifetime exposure can result in kidney damage and possibly cancer, according to the EPA.

Wonder Lake resident Joe Rosner, 51, was driving through Ringwood on his way home when he saw and smelled the release. He said he promptly called 911, and the McHenry Township Department was dispatched to the 5005 Barnard Mill Road plant to investigate.

"As I drove through town, first I noticed a really strong odor. It smelled like model airplane cement," Rosner said. "It was so strong that I felt a stinging in my eyes from it. And I looked over [at Rohm and Haas] and there was a visible mist."

Bielas said tests along the plant’s perimeter did not detect vinylidene chloride above the federal government threshold of 5 parts per billion.

Rohm and Haas and neighbor Modine Manufacturing Co. were named in a class-action lawsuit and 23 individual lawsuits blaming pollution from their Ringwood plants for brain cancers and other illnesses in nearby McCullom Lake.

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