The Tassal Group Ltd (ASX: TGR) share price is slipping today after a gas leak incident at the salmon producer's Strathblane facility yesterday.
At the time of writing, the Tassal share price is trading 1.87% lower at $3.68.
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Incident impacting the Tassal share price
Media reports indicate more than 20 people were hospitalised for medical assessment after a suspected gas leak at Tassal's processing plant in the Huon Valley.
Tasmania Fire Services' initial on-site assessment indicated the most likely cause was carbon monoxide from forklift operations inside the building.
Fire Services Acting District Officer Barry Bones said:
On arrival [the crews] found that people had evacuated the building and there were some people that presented there with some respiratory illness and some people that had been vomiting. A few people started to present with more illness and that's a classic way this gas affects people.
ABC News reported six people were in a stable condition yesterday afternoon, suffering suspected carbon monoxide poisoning. Three people were held overnight at the Royal Hobart Hospital.
WorkSafe Tasmania is now investigating.
Safety at Tassal
According to Tassal's 2020 Sustainability Report, the company recorded 20 injuries requiring medical treatment in FY20. This was a reduction from FY19's 31.
This was despite the company's number of employees increasing by more than 100 to 1,458.
Tassal also reports its total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) has dropped each year since FY16. This metric measures the number of injuries requiring medical treatment per million hours worked.
In FY20, Tassal recorded 8.03 injuries per million hours worked.
The company is yet to provide a market update on the incident, despite the Tassal share price impact.
Tassal share price snapshot
It's been a challenging 12 months for the salmon and prawn producer. The Tassal share price has underperformed the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) by 33.3% over a trailing 12-month period.
Consequently, Tassal's market capitalisation now stands at $781 million.
