Is the refrigerant a heat carrier or a cooling agent?

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According to the accident report, ethylene glycol aqueous solutions do not undergo phase changes easily, so they cannot be used as refrigerants; should they be used as heat carriers instead? Which refrigerant is a coolant? Is a refrigerant a general term for both cooling agents and heat carriers? Circular from the General Office of the Ministry of Emergency Management regarding the “April 15” major fire and poisoning incident at Qilu Tianhe Huishi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in Jinan, Shandong Province. Emergency Management Office [2019] No. 44. To the emergency management departments (bureaus) of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government; to the Emergency Management Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; and to relevant central enterprises: At around 15:37 on April 15, 2019, a major accident occurred at Qilu Tianhe Huishi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., located in Licheng District, Jinan City, Shandong Province, during renovation work on the piping system for chilled water (ethylene glycol solution) in the basement of its lyophilized powder injection production workshop. The incident resulted in 10 deaths and 12 people sustaining minor injuries. Based on preliminary investigation and analysis, the direct cause of the accident was that workers from the contractor Xinfang Construction Group Co., Ltd. were performing welding and cutting operations on pipes in a confined space as part of the work on the refrigerant water system; this led to the ignition of the refrigerant corrosion inhibitors that were stored nearby. These inhibitors are flammable solids and constitute hazardous chemicals, requiring storage away from sources of fire. The combustion generated toxic fumes such as nitrogen oxides, which caused poisoning and injuries among the people present at the site. The detailed cause of the accident is under further investigation. The accident revealed serious issues, including a lack of safety awareness among the company involved, failure to learn from similar accidents, poor control over operations involving hot work and entry into confined spaces, inadequate management of contractors, severely insufficient emergency response capabilities, and lack of understanding regarding the hazardous properties of the chemicals used. The company has experienced multiple safety accidents in recent years, revealing serious issues such as chaotic safety management within the company, inadequate special inspections by local regulatory authorities regarding safety procedures for hot work and operations in confined spaces, and weak safety oversight. The accident occurred during a period when the whole country was earnestly learning from the particularly severe explosion at Tianjiayi Company in Xiangshui, Jiangsu on March 21, and was taking further steps to improve safety standards in the chemical and hazardous materials industries; it also fell during a special inspection on hazardous materials safety conducted by the State Council’s Safety Committee. It attracted widespread public attention, resulted in heavy casualties, and had extremely serious consequences. Following the accident, **** and other leading officials of the State Council attached great importance to it and issued important directives, ordering that every effort be made to handle the accident and provide treatment for the injured, to determine the causes as soon as possible, to hold those responsible accountable, and to strengthen supervision over the safe production in chemical and pharmaceutical enterprises in order to prevent such accidents from occurring. To thoroughly draw lessons from the accident, take preventive measures to avoid similar incidents, strengthen risk control and the identification and rectification of potential hazards, earnestly fulfill enterprises’ primary responsibilities regarding work safety, further enhance the safety management of hazardous chemicals, and resolutely prevent and curb major and extremely serious accidents, the following requirements are put forward: First, conscientiously implement the important instructions of **** and resolutely prevent and defuse major safety risks. All regions and relevant enterprises must earnestly implement ****’s important instructions on work safety related to hazardous chemicals, carry out the decisions and arrangements made by **** and the State Council, elevate their political awareness, firmly foster the “Four Consciousnesses,” and resolutely uphold the “Two Upholds.” They must fully recognize the utmost importance of work safety concerning hazardous chemicals, deeply understand the existing systemic risks and the severe situation at hand. It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive and thorough investigation into any fundamental, systemic, or root-cause problems; draw profound lessons from past accidents; make a concerted effort with unwavering determination; and adopt decisive and effective measures. Furthermore, it is essential to reinforce the political requirements for implementation, maintain a steadfast attitude toward execution, improve professional capabilities in this regard, and cultivate a sound working style. Only in this way can we resolutely prevent and defuse major safety risks—such as those associated with major sources of hazardous chemicals, high-consequence areas along oil and gas pipelines, special operations like hot work and entry into confined spaces, as well as maintenance activities—thereby effectively preventing major and extremely serious accidents and curbing the frequent occurrence of such incidents. II. Strengthen the safety management of special operations such as hot work and entry into confined spaces. Chemical and hazardous chemicals production enterprises must fully recognize the significant safety risks associated with such special operations, and in strict accordance with the requirements of the \"Safety Specifications for Special Operations in Chemical Production Units\" (GB30871–2014), they should improve their safety management systems, enhance risk identification and control, strictly enforce procedures for operation approval, and limit the number of workers present in confined spaces. Additionally, they need to strengthen on-site supervision to ensure that all safety requirements are met. All regions should continue to carry out thorough special inspections aimed at ensuring the safety of such operations. Special law enforcement inspections should be conducted regarding tasks such as working with open flames and entering confined spaces; enterprises found to be violating relevant regulations must be punished strictly and severely in accordance with the law. III. Strengthening the safety management of contractors: Enterprises should incorporate contractors into their own safety management systems, establish and improve systems for managing contractors, and conduct strict evaluations of their qualifications ； Strict safety training for contractors’ workers prior to entry to the site is required; those who fail the training are not allowed to work on site. Before the contractor begins work, the owner must thoroughly review the contractor’s construction plan, provide on-site safety instructions to the workers, and inform them in detail about the safety risks present in the working environment, as well as the measures to address those risks and the emergency procedures to be followed. It is also necessary to ensure that combustible materials are removed from the construction site and to carry out ongoing supervision; personnel with the appropriate qualifications should be assigned to oversee the entire process on site. IV. Earnestly implement the requirements regarding “one manual and one label”. All relevant enterprises must fully recognize the importance of “one manual and one label” (the Chemical Safety Data Sheet and safety label). Manufacturing enterprises must comply with relevant laws and regulations regarding the packaging of chemicals, adhere to strict packaging requirements, and provide \"one document and one label\" that meet **standard specifications and correspond to the chemicals they produce, so as to ensure that downstream users receive chemicals that satisfy packaging requirements as well as accurate safety information. Users should carefully consult the Chemical Safety Data Sheet, identify potential risks, and train relevant operators to ensure they have a thorough understanding of the physicochemical properties and hazardous characteristics of the chemicals. They must store and use these chemicals in strict accordance with the requirements. All regions should step up supervision and inspection of the implementation of the requirement of \"one document per chemical\" for relevant enterprises. Acts such as failing to provide the required documents, providing information that does not match the chemicals being produced, or deliberately concealing information regarding the hazards of those chemicals shall be strictly investigated and dealt with in accordance with laws and regulations. V. Carry out thorough inspections and rectifications of safety hazards related to hazardous chemicals. All regions and relevant enterprises should draw serious lessons from the extremely serious \"3·21\" accident that occurred at Tianjiayi Chemical Company in Xiangshui, Jiangsu. They must fully implement the requirements put forward at the video conference on further strengthening safety measures held on March 27 by the Office of the State Council’s Safety Committee and the Ministry of Emergency Management. Experts should be organized to conduct another review of enterprises that handle explosive, flammable, or highly toxic hazardous chemicals; strict law enforcement, inspections, and penalties should be applied. Any enterprise that fails to meet the standard requirements must cease operations, reduce production, or be shut down if necessary. To provide safety and legal education to the key personnel and management teams of hazardous chemicals enterprises one by one, it is necessary to ensure their presence on duty at all times, strictly enforce the system of leadership officers taking shifts, and rigorously implement the enterprises’ primary responsibilities in order to continuously improve the level of safe production. VI. Deepen the implementation of source-based governance, comprehensive governance, and targeted governance. All regions must rely closely on Party committees ** and all sectors of society to implement graded and categorized control over hazardous chemicals enterprises, classifying them into “red, orange, yellow, and blue” categories. Strict controls must be imposed to prevent those who lack the necessary knowledge and skills, are dishonest, or violate laws and regulations from continuing to run factories or businesses or participating in business management. Those that lack technical expertise and have not hired professional management teams must cease such activities immediately. It is necessary to fully leverage the coordinating and driving role of the Safety Committee, to ensure the effective implementation of the \"three musts\" responsibilities outlined by ****, and to create a joint effort among all parties involved. Greater efforts must be made to ensure implementation; it is necessary to resolutely correct the tendency in some regions and departments to remain superficial in their work, to see a gradual decline in the intensity of implementation, and to lack initiative and fail to carry out tasks properly. Those who fail to implement tasks adequately, who do not conduct thorough risk assessments, who turn a blind eye to serious potential hazards and delay taking action, and who are irresponsible regarding the safety of the people must be held accountable strictly, with no tolerance shown toward such behavior. Please promptly relay this notice to local emergency management departments at all levels and relevant enterprises within your jurisdiction. General Office of the Ministry of Emergency Management, April 17, 2019