FERTILIZER PLANT EXPLODES IN FRANCE

Abstract

A HUGE EXPLOSION ROCKED the industrial French city of Toulouse on Sept. 21 when a fertilizer plant operated by Grande Paroisse—a subsidiary of Atofina, the chemical arm of TotalFinaElf—blew up. Its cause is not known, but available information strongly suggests it was accidental. The official death toll stood at 29. Of the roughly 650 people hospitalized, 34 were judged to be gravely injured. The blast not only demolished the Grande Paroisse plant, which employs 460, but also destroyed neighboring buildings and blew out half the window glass in the city of 1 million, according to local reports. Damage was also extensive at the SNPE rocket-fuel and chemical plant, a major phosgene producer located across the Garonne River from the Grand Paroisse plant. A cloud of chemical products, mainly ammonia, blanketed the city, but it was not considered toxic since it was diluted in the atmosphere. Grande Paroisse produces nitrogen fertilizers marketed under the name AZF, as ...