Napier fertiliser company installs contaminant filter

Giant fertiliser co-operative Ravensdown has installed a $3 million "scrubber" to filter contaminants from the gas emissions of its Awatoto plant south of Napier.

On April 29, the company was ordered to pay $16,000 to two workers, Brent van Laar and Gareth Bradley, across the road at Winstone Aggregates Ltd, who became ill after inhaling fumes from Ravensdown's fertiliser manufacturing.

The men were exposed in July last year to silicon tetrafluoride emissions and were engulfed in what Judge Geoff Rea described as "something of a poisonous cloud". Judge Rea said it was concerning an emission had occurred next to the main highway between Napier and Hastings.