IFFCO gas leak: How dangerous is ammonia?

Context

• In an unfortunate event, a major ammonia gas leakage happened at the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) unit at Prayagraj.

What is Ammonia?

• A tri-hydroid of nitrogen (NH3), ammonia is a building block for ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) that is used in agriculture as a high-nitrogen fertiliser.
• Ammonia is critical in the manufacturing of fertilizers, and is one of the largest-volume synthetic chemicals produced in the world.

How and Why Ammonia is being used in industrial setups?

• More than 80 percent of ammonia made is consumed in the manufacturing of fertilizer, and most of the remainder goes into the production of
• Ammonia is stored for industrial use in liquid form under high pressure or in gaseous form at low temperature.

Impacts of Ammonia on human body

• Ammonia can cause irritation to eyes, skin, nose and throat.
• It interacts immediately upon contact with moisture present in the skin, eyes, oral cavity, respiratory tract to form ammonium hydroxide, which is very caustic and disrupts the cell membrane lipids, ultimately leading to cellular destruction.
• As cell proteins break down, water is extracted, resulting in an inflammatory response that causes further damage.