“China on high alert on fifth anniversary of Tianjin explosion”, 11 August 2020

On the fifth anniversary of the massive explosions at a Tianjin chemical storage warehouse that killed 173 people, including 104 firefighters, on 12 August 2015, China has ordered an urgent and comprehensive inspection of all its hazardous chemical storage facilities.

The renewed call for inspections was apparently prompted by the 4 August explosion in Beirut, which bears striking similarities to the Tianjin tragedy…

During a 5 August meeting in Beijing, the State Council’s Safety Commission and the Ministry of Emergency Management ordered local authorities across the country to immediately inspect and rectify hazardous storage facilities, with a particular focus on ports, docks, logistics warehouses, and chemical parks, according to a report by the Beijing News.

The meeting singled out the threat from the improper storage of ammonium nitrate, which was the probable cause of both the Tianjin and Beirut explosions…

The first inspections took place on 8 August in the Tianjin port area - which no longer handles ammonium nitrate - and, straightaway, discovered eight work safety violations at Huiyang Petroleum Storage and Transportation Co., Ltd. The municipal government ordered the company to immediately halt operations and rectify the problems…

There was no mention at the meeting of the role enterprise and local trade union officials should play in maintaining workplace safety and reporting potential work hazards. As China Labour Bulletin has shown in our recent interviews with trade union officials following workplace accidents, the trade union is generally considered to be a junior partner with no real authority to rectify work safety problems…

In the five years since the Tianjin explosion… CLB’s Work Accident Map has recorded at least 275 explosions (more than one per week) out of a total of nearly 2,600 workplace accidents. There were 57 explosions at chemical plants and another eight at chemical storage facilities…