Several employees’ workdays were disrupted when Diversey Solenis, a manufacturing plant in Florence, experienced a chemical leak.
Plant manager Matt Reed reported that on Tuesday night, during routine cleaning of the manufacturing process, a chemical reaction led to the off-gassing of chlorine gas.
“At no time did that exceed the permissible exposure limits for safe handling of that material. Local fire and hazmat has been on site to help us out,” said Reed.
He told LINK’s media partner, WCPO, all employees are accounted for and safe, and stated that the surrounding area is not in danger.
“Our people are from this community and work in this area, so the safety of our people and this community are our top priority,” Reed said.
According to Reed, the chemical reaction happened in an isolated area of the Diversey Solenis building.
Reed noted Reed noted that employees cannot return to the building until the “haziness” clears, which typically takes a few hours.
“We don’t have a root cause at the moment, but we can provide those details as we get them,” said Reed.
According to the Solenis website, the company specializes in tackling “tough water treatment, process improvement, and hygiene challenges” for customers across various markets, including consumer, industrial, institutional, food and beverage, and pool and spa water sectors.