[Interpretation of the Special Equipment Safety Law] Article 3

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This article sets out the principles that should be followed in ensuring the safety of special equipment. First, the principle of giving top priority to safety must be adhered to. Just as in production safety, safety comes first in all efforts related to special equipment; human life is of utmost importance, and this is also a sign of societal progress. The safety of special equipment involves various interests, especially economic ones, which therefore can lead to conflicts. For example, enhancing the safety performance of special equipment involves using more materials to increase strength and stiffness, installing safety devices to ensure protection, and conducting destructive testing to improve reliability; all these measures increase the cost of the equipment itself ； Implementing licensing, requiring the establishment of quality assurance systems, strengthening personnel training and assessment, enhancing operational management, and carrying out supervision and inspections will increase management costs. When dealing with conflicts in this area, the first thing to ensure is the safety of the equipment, which is what is commonly referred to as the safety veto power. For example, on escalators, if a child dies after being trapped and crushed in the triangular area where they ascend, it is necessary to require that protective barriers be installed in such areas on all escalators to prevent entrapment. Economically, some may consider it unworthy to take such widespread measures for such a rare accident, but human life is the most precious and cannot be measured in terms of economic value. As long as special equipment poses a risk of causing injury or death, including due to human actions, we must take all possible measures regarding the structure, strength, and stiffness of such equipment, as well as its operational reliability. This includes implementing various safety devices to prevent accidents, even in cases where human actions might lead to incidents. II. The principle of prevention first: Safety work related to special equipment involves both preventive measures taken in advance and corrective actions taken after incidents occur. Preventing accidents is the most fundamental requirement; proactive prevention is an effective measure to avoid accidents, while subsequent handling aims to minimize the losses caused by them. Proactive prevention for special equipment involves taking into account all factors that could lead to accidents, from design and manufacturing to installation, as well as modification, repair, and use. Necessary technical, administrative, and management measures are then implemented to ensure safe operation. Due to the limitations in human understanding as science and technology and management levels develop, it is impossible to completely eliminate accidents. However, efforts should be made to keep accidents under control and to prevent the occurrence of severe and catastrophic disasters. In the field of safety management for special equipment, thanks to the painful lessons from history, people have developed relatively comprehensive supervision and management methods, established basic safety requirements, and adopted strict oversight measures. These include emphasizing quality management and safety management in manufacturing enterprises, setting up specialized agencies to handle matters related to licensing, supervision and inspection, as well as regular inspections – all with the aim of preventing accidents. The history of fluctuations in the safety efforts related to special equipment in our country shows that when these measures for preventive action are weakened or relaxed, the number of accidents increases. It has not been easy to reduce the number of accidents per 10,000 units from 7.9 in the 1970s to 0.5 at present. Various effective preventive measures should be maintained, and they need to be adapted in a timely manner to the operating conditions of special equipment. III. Principles of energy conservation and environmental protection: Adhering to the principle of safety first does not mean ignoring other aspects, especially energy conservation and environmental protection. Some of the special equipment are high-energy-consuming devices in themselves. For example, boilers are important energy conversion devices; they are also major consumers of energy and significant sources of pollution. In 2010, China’s raw coal production was 3.24 billion tons, of which 2.38 billion tons were used for boilers, accounting for 73.4% of the country’s total coal production. Compared with developed countries, the energy efficiency of boilers in our country, particularly industrial coal-fired boilers, is relatively low; the average operating efficiency of these boilers is only 65%–70%. “During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, China’s industrial boilers that use coal consumed approximately 600 million tons of coal per year. Based on international advanced standards, if the thermal efficiency were increased by 10% to 15%, this alone would result in savings of 60 to 90 million tons of raw coal per year. Furthermore, China’s power plant boilers consume over 1.7 billion tons of coal annually. Although their energy efficiency is relatively high, due to the enormous volume of coal used and the uneven levels of technology and management, there is still significant room for energy savings. In addition, there are also heat exchange pressure vessels. It is an energy exchange device widely used in high-energy-consuming industries such as petroleum, chemicals, metallurgy, and power generation. Currently, these four industries utilize around 250,000 heat exchange pressure vessels. The heat recovered annually (mainly as secondary energy) is equivalent to approximately 700 million tons of standard coal, with a heat exchange efficiency of only 60–70%. If 50% of the heat exchange pressure vessels in these four industries were replaced with high-efficiency heat exchangers with an efficiency of 80–85%, the additional heat that could be recovered each year would amount to over 40 million tons of standard coal. When designing special equipment, by taking into account factors such as the use of appropriate materials, a rational structure, and scientific boiler operation methods, while ensuring safety, it is possible to make such equipment meet the requirements of being safe as well as energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. Throughout history, we have also advocated for and implemented various energy-saving and environmental protection measures, such as restricting the manufacture and use of manually fueled boilers and promoting advanced boiler combustion systems. In accordance with Article 16 of the Energy Conservation Law of the People’s Republic of China, which stipulates that \"for special equipment with high energy consumption, energy conservation reviews and supervision shall be carried out in accordance with the regulations of the State Council,\" the department responsible for the supervision and management of special equipment has formulated measures for the energy conservation of such equipment. In conjunction with the safety supervision and management tasks, it conducts reviews of the energy efficiency aspects of design documents as well as energy consumption tests. In addition to contributing to environmental protection through the reduction in materials used for special equipment and the lowering of boiler energy consumption, the production processes and usage management of such equipment also have an impact on the environment. Such as heat treatment, rust removal and painting, non-destructive testing, and fuel processing for special equipment. All of these should integrate energy conservation and environmental protection closely into safety supervision and management work. IV. Principles of comprehensive management: To ensure the safety of special equipment, it is necessary to take into account the responsibilities, integrity, and sense of service of production, operation, and usage units as well as inspection and testing agencies. It also involves the technical capabilities and competence of these inspection agencies, as well as their abilities in supervision, management, and law enforcement. Additionally, the safety awareness of the entire society plays a role. Coordination among all parties is required, with the use of educational, moral, economic, administrative, and legal measures to achieve safety goals – which is what we refer to as comprehensive management. Comprehensive management should be integrated throughout all safety efforts; in some cases, targeted efforts are also needed to address common problems and typical accidents.