WILL THE ODOUR PREVENT EXPLOSIONS?

Have the authorities solved the domestic gas related explosion issues? They ordered to stop distribution of gas until officials check the gas and then allowed distribution again. Why did they stop distribution and why did they later allow it to go ahead? What was the change made to the gas in between? What are they going to check- composition of the gas or pressure inside the cylinder or the odour additives?

State Ministry for Co-operative Services and Consumer Protection said in a statement, ‘the decision (to halt distribution) was due to the recent gas explosion incidents reported throughout the country’ and added that the distributors have been advised to suspend their distribution until they brought the Ethyl Mercaptan volume up to the standard.

Ethyl Mercaptan is said to be a liquid or a gas with a strong odour and is used as an additive to odorless gases like butane and propane which are in the domestic gas to alert the public of their presence. So, now the distributors of gas are supposed to have added Ethyl Mercaptan in the gas and thus they have been allowed distribution.

Does it mean that the absence of Ethyl Mercaptan has caused the recent explosions? Wouldn’t there be any more such explosions? The officials of the gas companies attributed the explosions to what they said the substandard accessories used by the consumers with gas cylinders, such as the regulator and the hose that carries gas from the cylinder to the chamber. And the authorities’ remedy was to add a chemical with a sharp odour to alert the consumer on the impending explosion or fire, but not to prevent explosions.

If we are to go by the statements of the gas companies who blamed the accessories used with the cylinders, the authorities must have a rapid mechanism to provide the consumers with proper accessories. But now, they seem to tell the people, “yes, the possibility of explosions is still there, but you will be alerted by Ethyl Mercaptan beforehand. Once alerted, remove the regulator.” However, even some members of the committee appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to look into the explosions, have suspected a change in the composition of the gas having been the cause of explosions.

People in this country have been using gas for the past three decades and rarely explosions or fire mishaps occurred. People have been using the accessories they are using now from the very inception, without any mishaps, except rare incidents that can be considered to be accidents. Therefore it is clear that something in the gas supplied by the companies since lately is the cause for the recent spate of explosions. State Minister Co-operative Services and Consumer Protection, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, admitted on November 29 in parliament that, ‘there has been an unusual increase in the incidents of gas explosions recently,’ And as if to persuade the people not to take the explosions seriously or to put the blame on the previous government added that there had been ‘a total number of 233 incidents of gas explosions reported since January 2015 to October 31 this year’. If there has been an increase in the incidents recently, why drag a period when there is no issue. Weren’t there any incident before January 2015, the month in which the last government was installed?

In April, the Litro Gas Company surreptitiously reduced the gas in the normal 12.5 kg domestic cylinder by about 3 kg and indicated the amount of gas in it in liters (18 liters), while reducing the price by Rs.100 (instead of about Rs. 300). The gullible consumer was confused if the cylinder contained more or less gas than what they bought earlier, as one cylinder indicated the amount in kilograms while the other in liters. Also it was said that the company, interestingly a state-owned entity, has changed the composition of gas by increasing the percentage of propane in it. It too was not informed to the consumer. Since the propane has four times greater pressure than butane, the other gas in the cylinder, this measure definitely could have increased the pressure inside the cylinder.

With the public outrage growing, the company withdrew the 18 liter cylinder but the its authorities now give the propane percentage as something within a range. And now that the customers get the normal 12.5 kg cylinder, if it contains the gas with increased propane percentage, the pressure inside the cylinder is expected to be much higher than that of the cylinder used before April. Since this is life threatening issue, the authorities must be transparent and inform the consumer as to what has really happened. If the pressure is increased they must inform the people and advice them to change their accessories accordingly and make arrangements to provide them with proper accessories that suit to the increased pressure remitted by the cylinder.