Interpretation of the Work Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China (112)

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This post was last edited by yinkuilin6868 on 2015-12-14 11:18. Article 112: The meanings of the terms used in this Law are as follows: Hazardous items refer to flammable and explosive substances, **chemicals, radioactive materials, and other items that can pose a threat to human safety and property safety. A major hazard source refers to a unit (including sites and facilities) that permanently or temporarily produces, transports, uses, or stores hazardous substances in quantities equal to or exceeding the critical level. Interpretation: This article provides explanatory provisions regarding the two concepts of hazardous materials and major hazard sources. (1) Concept of hazardous materials According to the provisions of this article, the term “hazardous materials” as used in this Law refers to materials that can pose a threat to human safety and property safety. That is, due to their chemical, physical, or toxic properties, such materials can easily cause dangers such as fires, explosions, or poisoning during processes such as production, storage, handling, use, and transportation, and may lead to casualties and property damage. Obviously, this is a definition based on the nature of the item. Generally speaking, hazardous materials mainly fall into three categories: flammable and explosive substances, **chemicals, and radioactive materials. 1. Flammable and explosive materials. Items that are prone to burning or exploding due to their chemical properties. Flammable materials mainly include: (1) Flammable solids, such as sulfur, etc ； (2) Flammable liquids, such as gasoline, kerosene, turpentine, paint, etc ； (3) Flammable gases, such as liquefied petroleum, etc ； (4) Self-igniting materials, such as yellow phosphorus, oil-paper, oil-cloth, and their derivatives ； (5) Water-reactive materials, such as sodium metal and aluminum powder ； (6) Oxidants and peroxides, etc. Explosive materials mainly include civilian **goods**, products from the arms industry, **, **, pyrotechnic products, as well as fireworks and firecrackers. Civilian explosives mainly include various types of explosives, fuses, detonating cords, non-pure detonation systems, initiating explosives, as well as blasting agents such as those used for blasting rock and concrete. 2. **Chemicals. According to the provisions of the **Regulations on the Safe Management of Chemicals**, chemicals refer to those substances that possess properties such as toxicity, corrosivity, explosiveness, flammability, or oxidizing properties, and that can cause harm to human health, facilities, and the environment – including both such chemicals and other chemical substances. **The list of chemicals is determined, published, and adjusted from time to time by the department under the State Council responsible for work safety supervision and management, in conjunction with the relevant departments of the State Council in charge of industry and information technology, public security, environmental protection, health, quality supervision, inspection and quarantine, transportation, railways, civil aviation, and agriculture, based on the standards for identifying and classifying the hazardous properties of chemicals. **Chemicals mainly include explosives, compressed gases and liquefied gases, flammable liquids, flammable solids, self-igniting substances and substances that catch fire easily when exposed to moisture, oxidizers and organic peroxides, toxic substances and corrosive substances, etc. Compressed gases and liquefied gases mainly include: hydrogen, methane, ethane, compressed hydrogen sulfide, liquefied petroleum gas, natural gas supplied for urban living and production, artificial gas, and gas fuels produced from heavy oil. Toxic poisons, such as sodium cyanide, potassium cyanide, *** etc. Corrosive substances mainly include: acidic corrosives, such as formalin solution ； Alkaline corrosives, such as ammonia water, diethanolamine, etc ； Other corrosive substances, such as acidic potassium fluoride, formalin solution, etc. 3. Radioactive materials. It mainly includes metallic uranium (natural), thorium nitrate (solid), etc. (II) Concept of major hazard sources According to the provisions of this article, a major hazard source refers to a unit (including sites and facilities) that permanently or temporarily produces, transports, uses, or stores hazardous substances, and the quantity of such substances is equal to or exceeds the critical level. From this provision, the concept of a major hazard source has three levels of meaning: (1) A major hazard source is a type of site or facility (collectively referred to as a unit) ； (2) A major hazard source is a site or facility where hazardous substances are produced, transported, used, or stored ； (3) A major hazard source is a site or facility where the quantity of hazardous substances produced, transported, used, or stored is equal to or exceeds the critical amount. The key factor in determining major hazard sources is whether the quantity of hazardous materials is equal to or exceeds the critical amount. The so-called critical quantity refers to the specified amount for a certain type of hazardous material; if the amount of such material in a unit is equal to or exceeds this amount, then that unit should be classified as a major hazard source. The critical quantity for specific hazardous materials is determined by the nature of those materials. Hazardous sources are divided into two types: hazardous sources in production areas and hazardous sources in storage areas. The methods for identifying the two types of major hazard sources are basically the same. The specific measures are outlined in the **Standard of the People’s Republic of China (GB 18218—2009)** \"Identification of Major Hazardous Sources of **Chemicals\", which came into effect on December 1, 2009.