Tuesday, April 7, 2015

XYLENE LEAK CAUSES ANOTHER BLAST AT THE ZHANGZHOU CHINESE CHEMICAL PLANT TARGETED BY CONCERNED CITIZENS OVER POLLUTION RISKS. I GUESS THE CONCERNED CITIZENS WERE RIGHT.




Firefighters trying to extinguish a fire at a chemical plant in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, Monday night after an explosion that left at least 12 people injured. Credit Reuters

APRIL 7, 2015

FUJIAN PROVINCE, CHINA

A leak at a plant in the eastern province of Fujian has set off a huge explosion, injuring at least 12 people and fueling doubts about safety at chemical factories.
The explosion shortly before 7 p.m. Monday has been traced to a leak from a xylene tank at the Dragon Aromatics plant in the city of Zhangzhou, according to the Fujian Provincial Administration of Work Safety. Two people were seriously injured and 10 others suffered minor injuries, reported Xinhua, the state news agency.

The force of the blast was felt for miles around. “It was like it exploded next to my house,” a man who lives 18 miles from the plant told Southern Metropolis Daily, based in Guangzhou. 


The blast drew hundreds of emergency workers to the Zhangzhou plant.
The explosion ignited three storage tanks, and flames continued to burn through the evening, Xinhua reported. More than 750 firefighters and police officers responded to the emergency, the authorities said.

The plant produces paraxylene, also known as PX, a chemical used in the manufacture of plastics and polyester that has been the target of large environmental protests in China. The plant had originally been planned for the coastal city of Xiamen, but local resistance there in 2007 led to its being moved to a less-developed area about 60 miles inland.

The explosions Monday were the second major accident at the plant in less than two years. In 2013, an explosion ripped through the plant, damaging nearby homes but causing no injuries. That blast happened on the same day that People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, ran an article touting the safety of paraxlyene and arguing that the public’s suspicions were leading to a critical shortfall of the substance, forcing China to be overly reliant on imports.



An explosion had struck the same chemical plant in 2013. 

The 2007 Xiamen protests inspired a series of similar movements against petrochemical and heavy industrial plants in China. Residents in cities including Kunming, Ningbo, Dalian and Maoming have rallied against plans for industrial plants in their communities, particularly those producing paraxylene.

While the demonstrations in prosperous cities are more widely known, protests have also erupted in poorer interior areas, such as the 2012 campaign against a copper plant in Shifang, Sichuan Province.

On Saturday, the police detained dozens of residents of Naiman Banner in Inner Mongolia after weeks of protests and violent clashes over fears of pollution from a chemical plant, according to reports from the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, an advocacy group based in the United States, and Radio Free Asia, a broadcaster funded by the United States government.

When people talk, the governments and businesses must listen.  We all want the businesses to prosper and make money and so on.  If they do well, the people will also do well.  But we can no longer ignore pollution and safety issues, as they lead to disasters like the one happened at this plant.  It turns out that people were right after all.  

We certainly object to the labeling of the concerned citizens as “protesters”.  It is counterproductive and only delays finding a solution that is acceptable by all parties.

Source: http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com