New chemical accident rules soon to prevent Vizag like accidents

With several industrial accidents in recent past highlighting gaps, the government is in the last leg of finalising the amendment to chemical accident rules to minimise disasters such as the one that happened at Visakhapatnam polymer factory on Thursday, killing at least 11 and hospitalising hundreds.

Following the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) notified two sets of rules - Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals (MSIHC) Rules, 1989 and Chemical Accidents (Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Response), (CAEPPR) Rules, 1996 - to regulate the manufacturing, use, and handling of hazardous chemicals.

The objective of MSIHC Rules is to prevent major chemical accidents arising from industrial activities and limit the effects of chemical (industrial) accidents. The CAEPPR Rules provide the statutory back-up for Crisis Management.

In 2016, MoEF proposed to upgrade the rules to keep pace with the time. A draft amendment to rules that ...