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SINGAPORE \u2013 The two workers who died after inhaling toxic gas at PUB\u2019s Choa Chu Kang Waterworks were not wearing respirator masks, said a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) investigating officer on Oct 2.<\/p>\n
Several other safety protocols were also not followed, including the requirement to ventilate the area before entry, said Muhd Hafidz, a senior investigating officer at MOM\u2019s occupational safety and health division.<\/p>\n
He was testifying on the first day of a coroner\u2019s inquiry into the deaths of the two workers.<\/p>\n
Malaysian Izzat Naqiuddin Dowod, 24, and Indian national Srinivasan Sivaraman, 40, collapsed after inhaling hydrogen sulphide, which is produced by sludge, a by-product of the water treatment process. Hydrogen sulphide is colourless and can be lethal even at low concentrations.<\/p>\n
The incident happened on the morning of May 23, 2024, when Izzat and a third worker entered the enclosed passageway of the pulsator tank to turn off a valve controlling the drainage of sludge.<\/p>\n
Sivaraman likely entered the passageway shortly after to check on them, said the investigator. He added that both Izzat and Sivaraman were not wearing respirator masks when they were rescued.<\/p>\n
Both men died of their injuries in May 2024<\/span><\/a>, while the third worker survived.<\/p>\n Izzat was employed by cleaning company Stargroup Est, while Sivaraman was a cleaning operations manager\u00a0at Supersonic Maintenance Services.<\/p>\n Hafidz told the court that a cleaning team, including the two workers who died, were supposed to carry out cleaning works on the pulsator tanks that day.<\/p>\n Safety protocols require workers entering the passageway of the pulsator tank to have a personal gas detector and a personal torchlight. They must also have a buddy who is supposed to stand outside the passageway.<\/p>\n Before entering, external ventilation has to be done to dissipate the toxic gases.<\/p>\n The passageway has three alarms, which will alert workers when the environment is hazardous. All three alarms were working on the day of the accident, said the investigation officer.<\/p>\n At about 9.30am that day, Izzat and another worker entered the passageway to turn on the valve to drain the sludge.<\/p>\n Sivaraman was standing outside, following the buddy system.<\/p>\n The two workers opened the valve and left without any incident.<\/p>\n Around 10am, a contractor noticed a foul smell coming from the tank and realised that the sludge was flowing out too rapidly.<\/p>\n The contractor informed Sivaraman, who instructed Izzat and the worker to go back to the passageway to close the valve.<\/p>\n The two men entered the area without respirators, and collapsed after inhaling hydrogen sulphide.<\/p>\n Izzat was wearing a personal gas detector, according to Hafidz.<\/p>\n No ventilation of the area was done prior to their entry, said the investigator, adding that the two men did not have a buddy standing outside the passageway.<\/p>\n The alarms inside the passageway were triggered at the time, he said. However, this was expected due to the release of toxic gases during the cleaning of the tanks. The alarm on Izzat\u2019s gas detector had also been activated.<\/p>\n Hafidz said investigators could not establish what happened between 10.30am and about 11am, when the three men were found inside the passageway.<\/p>\n The Singapore Civil Defence Force was called to the scene. Firefighters and hazmat specialists in personal protective equipment used two water jets to disperse the poisonous gas<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n All three workers were taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.<\/p>\n Stargroup Est was charged in July<\/span><\/a> over allegedly failing to implement \u201creasonably practicable measures\u201d to minimise the risk to individuals at the workplace on or before May 23, 2024.<\/p>\n Worksite manager Lim Beng Hock was handed 12 charges. The 49-year-old is said to have failed to exercise due diligence in the issuance\u00a0of confined space entry permits.<\/p>\n After the incident, MOM issued a stop-work order to PUB. The national water agency had to cease cleaning work on the water tanks and stop entry into confined spaces adjacent to the tanks.<\/p>\n The stop-work order was lifted on Aug 6, 2024, after PUB met the conditions set by MOM. PUB said in July that it was issued a composition fine by MOM. One of their staff members was also issued a stern warning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 The two workers who died after inhaling toxic gas at PUB\u2019s Choa Chu Kang Waterworks were not wearing respirator masks, said a Ministry…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/89710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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