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Article

28 Mar 2019

Author:
Karoline Kan, China Dialogue (China/UK)

China: Reports suggest the latest chemical plant explosion was avoidable

"China’s latest chemical plant explosion was avoidable", 26 Mar 2019

By March 25, 78 people were known to have died in the latest blast, which occurred at a plant in the Chenjiagang industrial park. A further 566 are receiving treatment in local hospitals. Officials from the plant, which belongs to Tianjiayi Chemical Company, have been detained. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation. But media reports indicate that the tragedy was avoidable…

There had long been indications of risk at the Chenjiagang industrial park, and at the Tianjiayi plant in particular… According to the Beijing News, the State Administration of Work Safety, which regulates occupational safety in China, had reported problems with the body responsible for monitoring safety at the Tianjiayi plant, citing insufficient analysis and identification of risk factors and hazards, and a lack of targeted measures to rectify issues… Media reports show that production licenses were not renewed once they had expired in 2016. In February last year, the safety authorities identified 13 different hazards at the plant. Between 2016 and 2018, the company was fined on six occasions for breaches of rules on waste gases or handling of solid waste…

The Ministry of Emergency Management… has organised a number of actions on chemical industry safety, auditing risks and issues in chemical production nationwide. Issues such as poor storage of chemicals, which caused the Tianjin blast, have been discovered at many sites. But those checks did not prevent this latest explosion…

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