The Nation - News from Aug. 14, 1988
No one was injured and the fire was soon under control after a blast in Institute, W. Va., that ripped through part of a chemical plant that produces a toxic gas. The explosion occurred in a pipe carrying the flammable gas ethylene oxide inside the Rhone-Poulenc Inc. plant, which came under close scrutiny in 1985 when a chemical leak injured 135 people. The plant was formerly owned by Union Carbide, which still operates part of the complex. The plant also produces methyl isocyanate, the chemical that leaked from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, in 1984, killing nearly 3,000 people.
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