30 people sickened after work crew punctures 100 year-old abandoned gas pipe in San Francisco

[Ian David]

GLIDE Number: CH-20070512-11292-USA
Date / time: 12/05/2007 04:21:01
Event: Chemical Accident
Area: North-America
Country: USA
State/County: State of California
City: San Francisco
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: 30 persons
Damage level: Minor

Description:
About 30 people were sickened Friday when a Pacific Gas & Electric work crew punctured an abandoned, 100-year-old cast-iron gas pipe and apparently released noxious fumes in San Francisco's Mission district. The incident at 11 a.m. occurred a few blocks from St. Luke's Hospital and next to the center's medical buildings housing outpatient offices, hospital spokesman Kevin McCormack said.

While the San Francisco Fire Department did not order any mandatory evacuations as a result of the smell, the incident did warrant a "red alert" and a large group of people in the area of the hospital voluntarily evacuated from several buildings, a fire department dispatcher said. Most of people sickened were visiting doctors or working at the medical-office complex, McCormack said. Nearly a dozen were examined at the hospital, and another 15 were treated at a triage center there. Others did not seek treatment.

The symptoms ranged from headaches to severe nausea, said McCormack, who believed all had been treated and released. "If you're going to have an emergency, it's good to have it near a hospital," he said. The PG&E workers were installing a new plastic gas line near Tiffany Avenue and Valencia Street when they pierced the old pipe, releasing an additive that is often mixed with natural gas, according to utility spokeswoman Darlene Chiu.

The additive, which enables leaks to be detected by smell, is not toxic, but when people are exposed to it in sufficient Concentrations it can make them sick, Chiu said. PG&E workers quickly filled the pipe with sand as a means to quell the odor's release, she said.

More:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?lang=eng&cid=11292

[donco6]

1. Hydrogen Sulfide

rotten egg gas.

[MADem]

2. Not too too long ago, they added too much of that stuff to the distribution lines

And people were thinking they had gas leaks all over hell, when it was just an excess of that stinky stuff....

[TexasProgresive]

3. methyl mercaptan is added to natural gas to give it an odor

since natural gas is odorless. This gas is also released from rotting vegetative matter and has been described as smelling like rotten cabbage.

http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/ME/methyl_mercaptan.html