Tianjin Blasts Expose the Dangerous
Proximity of Toxic Chemicals in China
The warehouse in Tianjin that exploded on Aug. 12
was one of many buildings across China that store toxic chemicals near
residential areas or major roads, in violation of safety regulations,
according to a review of satellite imagery and public records.
Tianjin
Shijiazhuang
Weifang
CHINA
Luoyang
Wuhan
Shanghai
Anqing
Dongguan
Highways and schools all over China are near warehouses licensed to handle hazardous substances.
According to Chinese officials, the warehouse
in Tianjin, a major port city, stored at least 700 tons of one common
deadly chemical, sodium cyanide, used in mining to separate gold and
silver from rock.
After the deadly explosions, residents of Tianjin have been gripped by fear and uncertainty
over the presence of toxic chemicals in the city’s air and water,
setting off a national debate about hidden safety hazards along the
supply route for sodium cyanide.
Chinese regulations forbid facilities with
hazardous chemicals to operate less than one kilometer (two-thirds of a
mile) from public buildings and major roads.
The consequences of an accident at such a
storage site can be disastrous. The blasts in Tianjin killed over 100
people, injured hundreds more and turned the surroundings into wasteland. Experts said it was possible that some of the sodium cyanide had combined with water to form a toxic vapor.
Thousands of dead fish washed up on a riverbank
near the site of the explosions last week. White foam filled the
streets during the first rain shower after the blasts. Residents and
relatives of those killed have taken to the streets in protest, demanding to be told how a hazardous chemical storage site could be so close to their homes.
The sodium cyanide stored at the warehouse originated from a factory 200 miles west of Tianjin. Chinese news media reported
a foul smell in the air near the factory, and residents said they had
found white foam in the groundwater. Some complained of headaches.
Hebei Chengxin Company
Maker of sodium cyanide
Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province
Approx. 1 km
radius (0.6 miles)
Residential
area
Production
facility
Primary school
The company, Hebei Chengxin, is one of the
largest makers of the toxic substance in Asia. Its sprawling facility is
close to a primary school with up to 700 students and staff members.
Company officials could not be reached for comment.
The plant’s apparent violation of distance
rules reflects China’s difficulties in enforcing safety standards during
a time of rapid industrialization. In May, the Ministry of
Environmental Protection issued draft guidelines for improving
environmental protection in industrial parks, noting that some had
“expanded recklessly.” Such parks “create serious pollution and severe
environmental hazards that are affecting social harmony and stability,”
the guidelines warned.
On Friday, Greenpeace said it had identified warehouses
for hazardous chemicals at four other major port cities: Shanghai,
Guangzhou, Ningbo and Qingdao. All are close to residential areas.
The Times has found several other facilities
across China that produce or store sodium cyanide and other hazardous
chemicals and appear to violate safe-distance regulations, putting
nearby residents at risk of toxic exposure.
Transport
terminal
Production
site
Approx. 1 km
radius
Production
site
Residential
area
Sodium cyanide was only one of the chemicals
stored at the warehouse in Tianjin, owned by Rui Hai Logistics. But it
is remarkably lethal: A quarter of a teaspoon, if ingested, will kill an
adult in a few minutes.
Ng Han Guan/Associated Press
Officials have not explained why the warehouse
was allowed to operate just 2,000 feet from a high-rise apartment
complex. Residents said they had no idea that the warehouse posed a
risk.
Rui Hai International Logistics
Stores sodium cyanide
Tianjin
Approx. 1 km
radius (0.6 miles)
Donghai Road
train station
Site of explosion
Police station
Residential
buildings
Satellite images show two other
hazardous-goods warehouses in Tianjin less than three miles from the
blasts. The warehouses, managed by companies under the state-owned
Sinochem Group, advertise that they can store hazardous chemicals. One
is near a kindergarten; the other sits next to a major highway.
Employees at both warehouses declined to comment.
Residential
area
Kindergarten
Storage site
Approx. 1 km
radius
Storage site
S11 Haibin
Expressway
The blasts in Tianjin have prompted officials
to conduct surveys on sites across the country that store hazardous
chemicals. During one such inspection in Wuhan last week, the local
authorities found such a site just across the street from a residential
compound.
Inspectors chastised managers at the company,
Wuhan International Container, for violating basic safety standards,
like failing to maintain an inventory and store chemicals separately,
according to Chinese news media reports
last week. On Thursday, the city of Wuhan revoked the company’s license
to store explosive chemicals. The company did not return phone calls.
Storage
site
Approx. 1 km
radius
Storage site
Residential area
Another major producer of sodium cyanide,
Anhui Shuguang, appears to have a subsidiary close to a residential area
of Anqing in Anhui Province, and only a few hundred feet from the
Yangtze River in central China. The Times found a kindergarten and
another school within 1,000 meters of the factory. The company did not
respond to questions sent by email, and a person who answered the phone
there declined to comment.
Kindergarten
Primary school
Production
site
430 feet
Yangtze River
Approx. 1 km
radius
Storage site
Jin’aosha
village
On Thursday, safety inspectors also visited a
storage site in Dongguan, in southern Guangdong Province. The facility
is licensed to store sodium cyanide, according to a man who answered the
phone and said he was the operating company's legal representative. The
man, who gave only his surname, Lu, declined to say whether the site
was currently storing the chemical, citing client confidentiality.
Mr. Lu said the company had passed the
inspection. Asked about the warehouse’s proximity to the village of
Jin’aosha, he said he was confident that the distance exceeded one
kilometer. “We are definitely legal,” he said. “I have never done wrong
to the Communist Party.”
Satellite images by Digital Globe and CNES/Astrium via Google Earth.from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/08/21/world/asia/tianjin-china-explosion-hazardous-chemical-sites.html
