Cloud of Sulfuric Acid at Swedish Plant Fells 10; 300 Evacuated

A cloud of sulfuric acid leaked from the Nobel Works chemical plant in central Sweden on Thursday and spread over a square-mile area, injuring 10 people who inhaled the fumes and forcing the evacuation of 300 others.

Rescue workers said that by early today they had not brought the leak of corrosive gas under control at the plant in the town of 36,000, 200 miles west of Stockholm.

“We have tried to disperse the gas with fans around the pipe, but the problem is major,” said Fire Chief Lars Ekberg.

The Nobel Works plant is named for Alfred Nobel, the Swedish millionaire inventor of dynamite whose will in 1895 established the prestigious Nobel prizes.

Medical aides at a provisional emergency clinic set up at a school said they treated 10 injured people with doses of cortisone and oxygen.

The gas, known by its makers as Oleum, can cause permanent damage to the lungs and breathing passages, but long-term effects can be averted by heavy doses of cortisone.

The incident was the third major gas accident in two months. Poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, Dec. 3, killing more than 2,000 people.

A series of 11 explosions and a fire at a Pemex liquid gas distribution center in a working-class neighborhood in Mexico City on Nov. 19 killed 452 people and injured more than 4,000. Authorities later blamed gas leaking from several storage tanks that was ignited by a gas flare.

Swedish officials said the leak at Karlskoga occurred when a pipe froze during a power failure last week at the plant, where explosives, chemical products and pharmaceuticals are made.

The resulting cloud of gas spread over an area estimated at about one square mile, officials said.

Police closed off the town center and warned residents to stay indoors and keep windows, doors and ventilation systems closed. Many residents were reported to have complained of throat irritation.

“The personnel are working now primarily to diminish the fumes so they can get to the leak,” said Nobel Works information assistant Gertie Agren.

The leak was traced to one room at the factory, but workers reported they could not find the exact point of the break in the enclosed, fume-packed area.

They said that more than a ton of the toxic chemical was being emptied from a storage tank because the leak could not be stopped.

A similar accident occurred in southern Sweden two years ago, but the gas drifted out to sea and did not endanger a residential area.