Since a chemical leak killed a worker, Louisiana plant has seen 15 more accidental releases

Dangerous chemicals

Though several releases at Honeywell involved small amounts of hydrogen fluoride or hydrofluoric acid, some chemical industry experts have noted that small incidents can serve as early warnings that should be heeded. And hydrogen fluoride and hydrofluoric acid are dangerous chemicals that, even in small amounts, can be deadly for workers and the public.

Hydrogen fluoride burns the skin, rapidly absorbs through the skin to damage the organs and, if inhaled, causes the lungs to fill with fluid, according to federal regulators.

No one was injured in the January release, but authorities did close highways in Ascension and Iberville parishes, and workers sheltered in place. 

Honeywell has not yet explained to state regulators why the leak occurred, saying an analysis is still pending. Some reported hearing a pressure burst that sounded like an explosion.

At the time of the leak, Honeywell officials would not confirm hydrogen fluoride had been released, though state officials suggested it appeared to be what had escaped.

Honeywell in Geismar bills itself as the largest maker and user of hydrogen fluoride in the world and is one of a handful of companies in the United States that make it. Honeywell uses sulfuric acid to react with a mined rock known as fluorspar to make hydrogen fluoride.

Hydrogen fluoride is sold to other companies and also is used by Honeywell to make refrigerants, solvents, blowing agents and other products. But the process of creating hydrogen fluoride also generates large waste piles of fluorogypsum, which is laced with trace amounts of heavy metals, radioactive radium and other contaminants.

Ongoing lawsuit

Derousselle, 51, died at the hospital after a valve failed, engulfing him in a mist of hydrogen fluoride, according to a state police report. About 39 pounds of hydrogen fluoride were released.

On May 25, Derousselle’s son and daughter filed suit in a state district court in Ascension Parish against the maker and the local distributor of the gasket in the valve that allegedly failed, Leader Gasket Technologies and Erik’s North America. Local contractors who installed it, Turner Industries, have also been sued.