【Ministry of Emergency Management’s Special Inspection 2022】39 – Pharmaceutical companies have poor management of hazardous chemicals, and their employees lack a strong sense of safety
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Recently, the State Council Safety Committee dispatched 16 comprehensive supervision and inspection teams, each led by a responsible official from one of the member agencies, to conduct follow-up inspections as part of a thorough safety production audit in 31 provinces (regions and municipalities), as well as in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Among them, the 12th supervision and inspection team conducted inspections in Hohhot and Ordos cities in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from September 26 to 30, with reporters from The Paper accompanying the team on the mission. During the inspection process, the supervision and inspection team found that Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has made serious efforts to address the issues identified during the assessments and inspections at the end of April, achieving good results. However, some manufacturing and production enterprises still have shortcomings in terms of preventing and controlling safety risks related to hazardous chemicals, with particularly many problems in on-site safety management. Pharmaceutical companies have poor management of hazardous chemicals, and their employees lack a strong sense of safety. During the inspection of xxxx Pharmaceutical (Inner Mongolia) Co., Ltd., the supervision team also identified shortcomings in the company’s handling of hazardous chemicals. It is understood that for production needs, the company requires the use of hazardous chemicals such as industrial sulfuric acid and liquid alkali in its wastewater treatment units. However, inspections revealed that the company’s storage and management of the aforementioned hazardous chemicals were inadequate. During the inspection of the company’s liquid caustic storage tanks, experts found that no local level gauges were installed on the tanks. “Those who come to add lye can’t see the liquid level – how can safety be ensured? ”In response to the experts’ doubts, company staff said that a remote level gauge had been installed: “Someone in the control room can see it, and they will instruct the people on site to add more.” ”
This answer was not approved by the experts: “What if someone in the control room suddenly has to deal with something, such as answering a phone call or stepping away for a moment? What will happen if the people on site add too much liquid alkali?” ”Experts point out that such a model is not safe; liquid caustic soda, being a highly corrosive liquid, can cause severe harm to the human body in the event of a leak. Upon verifying the design drawings of the liquid caustic storage tank, it was found that local level gauges were included in the original design; it was the company’s staff who removed these safety accessories that were part of the original design. At the same time, based on the inspection process, enterprise staff lack awareness of hazards. When inspecting the sulfuric acid storage tank, the company’s staff entered the tank room without wearing protective equipment such as goggles; even after being reminded by experts, they claimed, “We really didn’t know we needed to wear them.” Experts told reporters that both sulfuric acid and liquid caustic soda are highly corrosive liquids; if they come into contact with the eyes, they can cause irreversible damage to vision, so special caution is required. If it gets into the eyes, it is necessary to immediately rinse them with an eye washer. Experts found that the company had not installed protective devices such as eyewash stations outside the sulfuric acid storage tanks and the liquid alkali storage tanks. An employee of the company said that portable eye wash stations were available in a nearby warehouse, where they could be used in case of an accident; it took one of the employees five minutes to retrieve them. “Their eyes were burned by sulfuric acid, and you still make them run to the warehouse to get an eye washer – do you think that’s appropriate? ”The experts immediately requested that companies install additional eye wash stations near storage tanks for corrosive liquids such as sulfuric acid and liquid caustic. Experts also found that the company’s wastewater treatment process involves so many hazardous chemicals, yet the overall emergency response capabilities of its staff still have much room for improvement. There were two air respirators in the emergency equipment cabinet of the company’s wastewater treatment unit. Upon inspection by experts, it was found that one of the air respirators had no pressure and could not be used at all, while in the other respirator, the gas cylinder was not connected to the breathing accessories, so it was not suitable for use in emergency situations.