Stowmarket: Investigation At Factory

The people who run PPG Industries in Stowmarket in Suffolk, where there have been two chemical leaks in less than a week, are telling Heart they will be carrying out a full investigation into how they happened.

The company says that both incidents, which happened at the site on Thursday 12th of January and Sunday 15th of January, involved the release of chemicals at the resin plant and that both were handled quickly and in line with COMAH approved emergency procedures.

The company also says in both cases the PPG site emergency team, followed standard procedures, activated the direct link calls to the Suffolk County Fire Service.

Site Manager Pedro Perez told Heart he was happy with how procedures were followed:

 PPG speak to Heart

They added: "Whilst regrettable, neither incident posed any threat to employees, the public, the local environment or the PPG facility. Furthermore, no PPG employee of member of the emergency services suffered any injury as a result.

PPG would like to reassure the local community, that it considers the health and wellbeing of employees, members of the public and the local environment as its highest priority at all manufacturing sites, and the company will be carrying out a thorough investigation to establish the root causes of these events.

Globally, PPG recognises its responsibility to provide safe, healthful workplaces and to preserve and protect the global environment in which the company operates. To this end, we run our businesses using sound environment, health, safety and product stewardship practices, and we cooperate and communicate with the public and support the communities in which we operate."

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Stowmarket:2nd Chemical Spill at Factory

16th January 2012, 05:04

There has been a second chemical leak at a factory in Stowmarket in Suffolk in less than a week.

It happened on Sunday afternoon at PPG at Needham Road and meant the road had to be closed and people in nearby homes were advised to close their windows and doors.

There had previously been a similar spill in another part of the factory on Thursday, and again the fire service had to put down a layer of special foam on top of the chemicals to stop and potentially flammable chemicals getting out.

The fire service estimate between 500 and 1000 liters of chemicals had got out.

The area's now been made safe and all roads are now re-opened.

Stowmarket: Chemical Spillage Update

13th January 2012, 06:16

Fire crews in Suffolk have managed to contain a chemical spillage at a factory in Stowmarket.

They were called out at around 2pm on Thursday to the PPG factory on Needham Road.

A cleaning solvent had got out, and crews had to cover an area half the size of a football pitch with a special foam to stop any potentially flammable gases getting out.

Ian Bowell, Group Commander, Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service said:

'This incident has been contained on site thanks to the work of the on site staff at PPG and Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service. During the incident we have worked closely with the Environment Agency and are pleased to say that all internal drainage systems have done their job containing any contaminated water on site for removal at a later date. Once again we would like to thank all involved for their co-operation during this prolonged and at times complex incident.'

They finished their operation after 10pm on Thursday night.