Injured Employee Out of Hospital
The last of three men injured by a recent release of toxic gas at the Mobil refinery was released Thursday from Torrance Memorial Hospital.
A hospital spokesman said Herbert Delome, a contract employee who had been hospitalized since Monday, had recovered from symptoms of nausea, respiratory distress and eye irritation.
Delome and two other employees of Serv-Tech Inc. were caught in a cloud of vapors after an accidental release at the refinery’s alkylation unit Monday night. The other two men were released from the hospital Wednesday.
Mobil spokesman Jim Carbonetti said the release was a mixture of ammonia fumes, which are toxic, and a nontoxic chemical compound commonly called ammonium fluoride, which is formed by hydrofluoric acid and ammonia.
Carbonetti said refinery employees did not obtain samples of the cloud, which workers described as dense, white, ground-hugging vapors.
The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Torrance Fire Department are investigating the accident as a release of hydrofluoric acid. Hydrofluoric acid is more than 15 times as incapacitating as ammonia, according to federal safety standards.
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