China: Toxic gas in Chinese brewery kills five

Toxic gas released by sewage in a Chinese brewery killed five people, Asia News said on May 24.

Two employees were overwhelmed by hydrogen sulfide as they checked equipment at the sewage pool of the Congtai Brewery in the northern city of Handan on May 19, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

It said four other brewery employees and five firefighters went into the facility to rescue the workers, and a total of seven of the people had to be rushed to a hospital with injuries from the gas.

Five of those hospitalized died, the report said, without specifying whether they were brewery employees or firefighters.

China suffers thousands of deaths a year in chemical plants and other industrial workplaces. Many are blamed on lack of required fire and safety equipment or indifference to safety rules.

25 May, 2005