Adrian, MI – WLEN News reported this morning that there was a hazardous material situation at Anderson Development Company, which was given the ‘all-clear’ by this afternoon. What was the cause? Here is the complete statement from ADC:
“We would like to apologize for any disruption that the incident at Anderson Development Company on March 30, 2022 has caused the community. We thank you for your patience. We also would like to thank the county hazmat teams, fire departments, police, sheriff, city/road departments, and emergency responders that responded to the incident. With their assistance, the incident was able to be safely addressed with no injuries to employees or responders.
Operators at ADC were starting to make a batch of urethane at 4 am last night. As they were charging materials, they identified that the temperature began increasing very quickly. The reactor heated up and the safety relief devices activated as designed. Some material carried over into the containment vessels, and some toluene diisocyanate vapors were released into the atmosphere. We called emergency responders at AFD for their help. The emergency responders along with ADC decided to be very cautious about the situation and requested that people shelter in place for a ½ mile around our plant. The reactor is cooling and is stable at this point. Air monitoring has been conducted and confirmed that public health was never in jeopardy during this situation. The actions the team took were all out of an abundance of caution to protect the public.
This morning, Anderson Development Company employees worked with the community emergency response team and resolved the situation. The precautionary measures that were enacted out of an abundance of caution were ended at 9:10 am.
At this time, we are in the initial stages of our investigation and we will continue our investigation to ensure that we understand what happened and how we can prevent anything like this from happening again.
The raw material involved is toluene diisocyanate, known as TDI. TDI is used in the production of a wide range of materials, from couch cushions to rollerblade wheels. While finished products produced from TDI are common, the raw materials have some same safety concerns.
Again, we would like to thank the hazmat, fire, police, sheriff, city/road departments, and other emergency responders for all that they have done to take care of this situation and to keep our community safe. We apologize for any disruption that this incident has caused our neighbors.
Anderson Development Company is a specialty chemical manufacturer of sustainable products used in the automotive, pharmaceutical, electronics, and durable goods markets. Anderson Development Company has operated in Adrian, MI for over 50 years. Anderson Development Company is certified to Responsible Care 14001, ISO 14001 and ISO 9002.”