On Aug 12, a series of tremendous explosions shocked Dongjiang Free Trade Port in Binhai New Area, the northeast part of Tianjin Port Area of China Pilot Free Trade Zone. According to the latest public release, the death toll has risen to 50, including 17 firefighters, and has left more than 700 people injured.
The direct cause of the explosions was a fire reported at 22: 50 found in stacks of hazardous chemical containers owned by Ruihai International Logistics. At around 23:30, people witnessed a bright red blaze lighting up the sky, followed by a huge explosion and a massive blast which shook the earth. In about 30 seconds, a second and much stronger explosion followed, generating a white mushroom cloud and sending out shockwaves that could be felt kilometers away. The fires have not yet been put out and smaller secondary explosions continue to occur intermittently.
The latest news has revealed that 4 substances have been identified from the explosion site namely sodium hydroxide, hydrogen iodide, sodium hydrosulfide and sodium sulfide. In addition, according to consignment information, at least 700 tons of sodium cyanide has been placed at the explosion site. Worse still, a field analysis has revealed that the sodium cyanide has made its way into local sewer water. The detailed cause of the initial fire is being investigated. In the wake of the explosion the city lies in ruins, transportation has ground to a halt and there has also been extensive damage to municipal and private property. The specter of extreme environmental damage and massive potential risks to health and safety posed by the release of highly toxic chemicals is a massive challenge for the government in terms of controlling the hazards, organizing a rescue effort and beginning reconstruction.
Ruihai, the enterprise at the center of the tragedy, is one of Tianjin’s largest transshipping, collecting and distributing centers of dangerous goods and has a total handling capacity of 1 million tons per annum. It holds a port operation license issued by Tianjin Municipal Transportation Commission, and is a designated establishment under the local Maritime Safety Administration. According to the company website, their warehousing business involves a great variety of hazardous chemicals under the following classifications:
Class 2: Compressed gases and liquefied gases (e.g. argon, compressed natural gas)
Class 3: Flammable liquids (e.g. methyl ethyl ketone, ethyl acetate)
Class 4: Flammable solids substances liable to spontaneous combustion and substances emitting flammable gases when wet (e.g. sulfur, nitrocellulose, calcium carbide, calcium-silicon alloy)
Class 5: Oxidizing substances and organic peroxides (e.g. potassium nitrate, potassium sodium)
Class 6: Poisons and infectious substances (e.g. sodium cyanide, toluene diisocynate)
Class 8 & 9: Corrosives & miscellaneous dangerous substances (e.g. formic acid, phosphoric acid, methylsulphonic acid, sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfide)
All the officially documented information indicates the enterprise is compliant with China’s laws and regulations in terms of work safety. However, news came that a survivor of the blast responsible for loading the hazardous chemicals in question has announced that he has never been trained to handle hazardous chemicals.
Cassie Li, GHS project manager of REACH24H Consulting Group, commented that the production, use, transport and storage of chemical substances, especially hazardous chemicals, could pose huge risks to workers’ safety and health, but in China this is more often than not overlooked by business owners. The explosion, like many other disasters in recent years has highlighted the need to carefully supervise and enforce new legislative measures designed to prevent the reoccurrence of such tragedies.
Chemlinked editor will follow up on further development of the issue.
