【Haichuan Safety News】Carrying out a national special inspection and rectification campaign on the safety of hazardous chemical storage
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Beijing, People’s Daily Online, August 5 (Bo Chendi) – Reporters learned from the Ministry of Emergency Management that on August 5, the Office of the State Council’s Safety Committee and the Ministry of Emergency Management held a national video conference on work safety. The conference aimed to draw lessons from the severe explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, and to arrange for special inspections and rectifications regarding the safe storage of hazardous chemicals across the country. It also sought to ensure that safety prevention measures are properly implemented in other industries, in order to prevent serious accidents and maintain stability in work safety conditions. Huang Ming, Deputy Director of the State Council Safety Committee and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Emergency Management, presided over the meeting and delivered a speech. The meeting noted that our country is a major player in the global chemical industry, with a large number of ports, docks, warehouses, storage areas related to hazardous chemicals, as well as vehicles and ships used for transporting such chemicals, which leads to an increasing level of safety risks. All regions, departments, and organizations must fully recognize the severe impact that major accidents and various types of explosions have on people’s sense of security. They must also be aware of the growing desire of the people in the new era for a better life and for greater safety. It is essential to always prioritize human life and safety in all work activities and throughout the entire process of safe production. It is necessary to properly balance epidemic prevention and control, the resumption of work and production, with safety measures. Local authorities must fulfill their responsibilities for management, relevant departments must adhere to their supervisory obligations, and enterprises must assume full responsibility for ensuring safety. By focusing on preventing major accidents, it is possible to effectively mitigate major safety risks and maintain a solid safety baseline.
The meeting emphasized the need to focus on ports, docks, logistics warehouses, chemical industrial parks, etc., and to immediately carry out special inspections and rectifications regarding the safety of hazardous chemical storage across the country.
Emergency management departments shall urge relevant production and business enterprises to implement measures such as cooling, ventilation, and keeping away from sources of fire during storage; they must strictly prohibit storing excessive quantities of substances or more than one type of substance together, as well as storing incompatible materials side by side. It is also necessary to ensure that devices and systems such as cooling sprayers, monitoring alarms, and fire suppression systems are in good working condition. The transportation authorities and customs agencies at all levels must organize inspections of all ports, warehouses, and docks that handle hazardous chemicals. They should impose penalties in accordance with the law on those facilities that fail to meet safety standards, store excessive quantities of such materials, or store them together in an improper manner, and order them to make the necessary corrections within a specified time frame. Departments such as those in charge of industry and information technology, public security, and market regulation should, in accordance with their respective responsibilities, organize the investigation and suppression of activities related to the illegal production, storage, and use of civilian explosives and other such items, and implement systems for approving sales and purchases as well as for recording information on their flow.
Environmental protection departments should carry out thorough inspections of hazardous waste safety and effectively implement safety prevention measures. All regions must conduct quantitative risk assessments of storage sites for all explosive hazardous materials such as *ao acid and an, and organize experienced experts to provide on-site guidance and supervision through both open inspections and secret checks, ensuring thorough and detailed investigations. It is necessary to start from the source, strictly implement the requirements for joint approval and stringent oversight of hazardous chemical production and storage projects, and arrange the location of such enterprises in a scientific and rational manner.
The meeting emphasized the need to conduct a thorough review of the implementation of corrective measures for major and severe accidents, and to make serious efforts to ensure those measures are put into effect. It is necessary to evaluate, item by item, the implementation of the corrective measures outlined in the accident investigation report; such matters must not be treated casually or overlooked. It is necessary to report to the higher-level safety committee and make the assessment results public, so as to be subject to social supervision and practical testing, and to take genuine responsibility for safe production and the safety of people’s lives. It is necessary to strengthen accountability by ensuring that those who fail to implement corrective measures, leave serious issues unresolved, or delay addressing significant risks and hazards are referred to the discipline inspection and supervision authorities for accountability. To pass the assessment, it is necessary to focus not only on addressing the specific issues identified in the accident investigation reports, but also on tackling the long-standing, persistent problems, so as to ensure that the whole country takes warning and implements corrective actions.
The meeting emphasized that August of each year is a month when serious accidents tend to occur frequently. It is necessary to take advantage of the three-year national campaign for special rectification of work safety to strengthen safety measures in key sectors such as coal mines, non-coal mines, fire protection, road traffic, and construction. The most pressing issues, weakest links, and greatest risks and hazards should be given top priority, with urgent matters dealt with promptly. It is necessary to improve systems for assessing and analyzing risk hazards, reporting at various levels, and implementing corrective actions. In particular, major risk hazards should be treated as accidents, with efforts made to identify serious risks, eliminate major hazards, and prevent severe accidents. The Office of the State Council Safety Commission issued a notice to launch a nationwide special inspection and rectification campaign on the safety of hazardous chemical storage. Earlier, the Ministry of Emergency Management organized several inspection teams to conduct both open and covert inspections in key areas related to hazardous chemicals, carrying out special inspections and oversight of more than 7,600 enterprises dealing with hazardous chemicals as well as over 22,000 major hazard sources. On July 31, the Ministry of Emergency Management and the Office of the State Council Safety Committee held a special video conference to make arrangements for further improving the safety standards in chemical industrial parks and hazardous chemicals enterprises.