Accidents More Frequent in Dangerous Chemicals Industry      

According to the Security Division under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, 2008 work safety data shows that the number of casualties in producing dangerous chemicals has gone up. Throughout the year, there were altogether 86 injuries and 149 deaths, up 7.5% and 12.9% compared to the previous year. Among all the major industrial accidents related to dangerous chemicals, explosions and inhaled poison accidents are especially serious. Typical accidents in 2008 include the nitrogen suffocation accident of Henan Zhongyuan Dahua Group Co., Ltd. in February which injured three and killed one, the major explosion at Guangxi Vinylon Co., Ltd in August, and so on. (CCR2008 No.25)
    In recent years, although China has taken many forceful measures against production and management dangers, many safety problems remain to be solved.
    In light of the current safety situation of China's dangerous chemicals production, the relevant associations and experts suggest that the government should accelerate the formation of a restraint mechanism to assure safe production in high-risk industries; enterprises, associations and all other related units should speed up the transformation and upgrading of their safety measures, and also properly solve the common and major problems threatening production safety management; enterprises should strengthen the training for employees in specific positions and improve their awareness of safety production so as to create a corporate culture which highlights self-prevention and mutual supervision.