al.com

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Problems at a natural gas platform near Dauphin Island may have been responsible for a cloud of toxic gas that swept across the island’s east end and sickened dozens of people, an ExxonMobil official said Tuesday.

Dauphin Island Sea Lab classrooms were evacuated, and a half dozen people visited the town’s doctor apparently after exposure to hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous and foul-smelling gas that occurs naturally underground with highly sought methane….

Ordinarily, when operations shut down and the entire system “de-pressurizes,” any deadly hydrogen sulfide in the gas escaping through the vent is burned, or “flared,” and converted to sulfur dioxide, another toxic gas more quickly dispersed by the nearly constant sea breeze….([1] Full Story)