AN EXPLOSION at a pharmaceutical factory that claimed the life of an employee and caused injuries to another was one of the worst accidents in the sector to be investigated by the Health and Safety Authority, a court heard yesterday.
Corden Pharma Ltd, trading as Corden Pharmachem Ltd with registered offices at South Mall, Cork, pleaded guilty to four breaches of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, following the explosion at its plant at Little Island, Co Cork, on April 28th, 2008.
Father-of-one Liam Nodwell (58) from Glanmire on the outskirts of Cork city was fatally injured and his workmate, Jimmy O’Sullivan, was seriously injured in the chemical explosion that happened in a process reactor.
Authority inspector Michael Boylan told Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that the explosion led to the most extensive investigation carried out by it since an explosion at the Hickson Pharmaceutical company in Ringaskiddy in Cork in the 1990s.
Mr Boylan said Corden Pharma had approximately 150 employees working at the plant but there were only five company staff and one security staff member on the complex when the accident happened at about 1.20am.
Mr Nodwell was working with his colleague Mr O’Sullivan on the second floor of the four-storey production building and was involved in the manufacture of a chemical product called CMP that involved the mixing of two ingredients. The two chemicals were to be mixed in a liquid base of acetone solvent, which is used to take the heat out of the reaction, but it appeared that Mr Nodwell had failed to add the acetone, resulting in a build-up of heat and gas which exploded in the vessel.
“It is our understanding there was an unintentional operator error – he made an error in the sequence in which the chemicals were put into the chemical vessel,” said Mr Boylan, adding the explosion blew a 5m (15ft) hole in the building with debris ending up 150m away.
Mr Boylan said Mr Nodwell, who died later at Cork University Hospital, had suffered extensive burns over 90 per cent of his body and multiple bone fractures.
He said the company had breached safety regulations by not properly assessing the risk and consequences of omitting acetone from the process. While electronic devices were available to control the mixing of ingredients, the company had relied on human judgment.
It was two days after the accident that the production unit was declared safe for HSA staff to enter the unit and begin their examination of the scene, said Mr Boylan.
The company later ceased manufacturing at the site and decommissioned the plant.
The case continues today.
