Gas agency near hospital: a clear recipe for disaster
Each and every one in a hospital — doctors, patients, nurses, attendants and family members of patients, and property (medical and surgical equipment, beds, medicines and more) worth billions of rupees have a right to protection and safety.
Suhas Hospital, located near APC circle in Jigani, south-east Bengaluru, has a HP Gas agency and godown that is too close to it. Gas cylinders can explode even from a tiny spark.
Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) a Government of India agency, has listed the rules and regulations for various petroleum products. Accordingly, gas godowns are supposed to be located at a stipulated distance – far away from hospitals, educational institutions, apartments and other public places.
http://peso.gov.in/Work_Mannual/Gas_cylinder_Rule_WM.pdf
PESO shared a 32-page document listing the rules and regulations for gas cylinders. It stipulates thatcompressed gases such as permanent gases, liquefiable gases, gases dissolved in liquid, when packed in metallic containers, have a potential danger of exploding. Therefore, the Government of India –Labour department issued a notification on 28 September 1938, classifying compressed gases in metallic cylinders as “explosives”.
In 2004, the Government of India brought out a set of rules governing the filling, possessing, transporting and importing of such compressed gases. These rules aim to protect people involved in filling, possessing, transporting and importing compressed gases.
These rules stipulate the distance of the gas godown from any public place to be proportional to the number of cylinders in the godown – greater the number of cylinders, more should be the distance.
The HP gas agency is located too close to Suhas Hospital and thus clearly violates the PESO safety rules. The LPG cylinders here pose a potential danger to the hospital premises and surrounding places. Anyone can guess the kind of danger that might happen.
The gas supplier staff members diligently conduct checks on LPG installations In domestic homes. They also need to show the same zeal in checking the gas godowns too. They need to ensure the innocent lives in hospitals, educational institutions and other buildings are safe from the inherent dangers posed by the godown. The rules regarding gas agencies and godowns should be strictly implemented.
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