customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Echo Xie

Beijing said late on Friday it had sent a senior cabinet official to the site of a chemical plant blast in eastern China and set up a central government task force to investigate the cause of Thursday’s explosion.
But it was cold comfort to residents and environmental groups in Yancheng who believe the explosion at the Chenjiagang industrial park – which left at least 64 people dead and injured more than 600 – could prove their concerns over safety and pollution at the factory were valid.
Zhang Wenbin, from a local environmental protection group, recalled the scene when he arrived at the disaster zone surrounding the Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical plant late on Thursday.
China chemical plant explosion leaves at least 64 dead
“The fire was not extinguished till 12am and the wind was blowing hard,” Zhang said. “We could only survey the scene from upwind of the site – we were worried about the toxic gas downwind.”
He said the nearest village was 500 metres from the plant, and it was deserted after the blast.
Zhang knows the area well – he said he had visited the industrial park with colleagues every year since 2014, testing for air and water pollution.
“The companies in the industrial park are built along the Guanjiang, and there are many hidden pipelines built by those companies to drain waste into the river, which flows into the Yellow Sea,” Zhang said. “In recent years, the environmental management has become more strict – but I don’t know if the pipelines have been removed or not.”

Chenjiagang and two other industrial parks in the north of Jiangsu province were the subject of a state television report in April last year. It said heavy polluters had fled to the parks from the Yangtze River Delta, where local governments have tightened pollution and safety standards. The new plants were apparently welcomed in the less affluent northern part of the province.
Chemical plant explosion sends China dye stocks surging, sinks affected firms
China has become one of the world’s largest producers and consumers of chemicals. In 2015, then environment minister Chen Jining said the country had about 25,000 chemical companies producing and using more than 50,000 types of chemicals. More than 20 of those Chinese companies are among the highest in the world in terms of production and consumption of chemicals.
But the country has also seen a number of chemical accidents in recent years – there were 218 in 2017, killing 271 people, according to a Ministry of Emergency Management report. Last year, there were 176 chemical accidents, with 233 deaths.
In January last year, Beijing sent out a team of inspectors to check on the safety of chemical plants in five cities in Jiangsu. Of the 18 factories they inspected, some 208 safety risks were identified. Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical was one of the companies that underwent checks – and 13 safety issues were found there.

Ada Kong, a senior programme manager with Greenpeace East Asia, said “the problems at those chemical plants were known”. “The blast happened because of insufficient supervision and inadequate safety management,” Kong said.
She said when her colleagues visited the nearby Lianyungang industrial park with colleagues in 2016, they also found lax enforcement of safety and pollution regulations.
“There was a smell of fumes and there were unregulated chemicals there,” Kong said.
Chinese chemical plant survivors recall ‘earth-shattering’ blast
She also said some of the safety standards needed to be tightened, such as the 500-metre minimum distance between a chemical plant and a residential area.
“I don’t think 500 metres is enough to prevent risks – it’s too close,” Kong said. “But there should be precautions in place to prevent a big accident like this, not just the [residential] safe distance.”
Beijing has sent State Councillor Wang Yong to Yancheng to direct the rescue and emergency response efforts, while an investigation group has been set up, led by deputy emergency minister Huang Ming.
Meanwhile, the Jiangsu government issued an emergency directive on Friday to launch a safety overhaul and inspect all potentially hazardous facilities in the province in the aftermath of the blast.


Corporate ESG: deadly China gas explosion pushes industry’s safety and governance standards up the agenda amid stock sell-off

Chemical plant explosion in central China kills 5 people

At least six killed in a factory explosion in China's Hubei province

China’s chemical crackdown ‘having more impact on business than US trade war’

China chemical plant explosion

China sends task force to probe blast at chemical plant where green group says ‘problems were known’

Residents and environmental groups had concerns over safety and pollution at the factory in Yancheng, Jiangsu before the explosion. Photo: Sidney Leng

(190322) -- XIANGSHUI, March 22, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Injured people receive medical treatment at a hospital in Xiangshui County of Yancheng City, east China's Jiangsu Province, March 22, 2019. An industrial park explosion killed 47 people and seriously injured 90 Thursday. Thousands of firefighters and medical workers and hundreds of ambulances and fire trucks have joined an all-out rescue after the explosion rocked a chemical plant in Jiangsu. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)

The explosion scene in Xiangshui County, Jiangsu. 22MAR19 SCMP / Sidney Leng

Devastation at blast site after China chemical plant explosion leaves at least 64 dead, 640 injured

A crater and clouds of smoke dominate the scene after the explosion at Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical plant. Photo: Handout

The explosion scene in Xiangshui County, Jiangsu. Photo: handout

Chemical plant explosion sends China dye stocks surging, sinks affected firms

All companies in Xiangshui Biochemical Park, where the Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical plant is located, have been shut down temporarily, according to the local government. Photo: AP

China chemical plant explosion: relatives grieve and villagers flee like refugees

Xiangshui People’s Hospital is overwhelmed by the injured and their families. Photo: Sidney Leng

Injured residents in Xiangshui county hospital. 22MAR19 SCMP / Sidney Leng

News

China

Politics

Senior cabinet official Wang Yong will direct the rescue and emergency response efforts in Yancheng
Thirteen safety issues were found at the factory during an inspection last year


China has set up a task force to investigate the cause of a blast at a chemical plant where 13 safety issues were found in an inspection last year.


Safety in China

China sends task force to probe blast at chemical plant where green group says ‘problems were known’

Senior cabinet official Wang Yong will direct the rescue and emergency response efforts in Yancheng Thirteen safety issues were found at the factory during an inspection last year

Senior cabinet official Wang Yong will direct the rescue and emergency response efforts in Yancheng

Thirteen safety issues were found at the factory during an inspection last year