China fires officials over deadly factory blast
This Aug. 2, 2014 file photo released by China's Xinhua news agency
shows the site of an explosion at an eastern Chinese automotive parts
factory in Kunshan City, Jiangsu province. (Photo: AP, Wang Hengzi)
December 30, 2014, Tuesday/ 15:35:53/
AP
/ BEIJING
China's Cabinet
announced on Tuesday the firing of the top two officials in an eastern
city where an explosion at an auto parts factory in August killed 146
people in the country's worst industrial accident since 2005.
The State Council also issued disciplinary demerits against a deputy provincial governor and the director of the provincial work safety bureau, and 18 other people - including factory executives and several safety and fire officials - were placed under judicial review for possible indictment, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The dust explosion at Zhongrong Metal Products Co. Ltd. in the city of Kunshan killed 75 people immediately. The death toll climbed to 146 when other workers died in the hospital. The factory supplied parts to General Motors.
Dust explosions can occur when tiny metal particles - in this case powdered aluminum - are suspended in air in an enclosed space.
The accident was China's worst industrial disaster in nine years and highlighted continuing problems with workplace safety. A 2005 mine accident in northeastern China killed 171 people.
Last June, a poultry plant fire killed 121 and injured 76 others in northeastern China. On Friday, courts sentenced two fire chiefs and two poultry farm bosses to prison terms of up to nine years for the deadly blaze.
Beijing has been holding local government officials and company executives accountable by meting out harsh penalties for work accidents with high casualties.
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SHANGHAI—Chinese authorities on Tuesday said an August explosion at a factory that supplied auto parts for General Motors Co. and other car makers killed at least 146 people, nearly double the initial death toll.
The Chinese government also said late Tuesday that it would prosecute three senior executives of Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Production Co., the company that owned the factory in the eastern industrial city of Kunshan where the explosion occurred, as well as 15 Kunshan government officials. The statement added that Guan Aiguo, the city’s top Communist party leader, and Lu Jun, the mayor of Kunshan, were ousted from their jobs over the matter.
The explosion in the eastern Chinese industrial city was caused by an excess level of dust that exploded after exposure to certain heat sources, an investigation team dispatched by the central government said in a statement published on the website of the State Administration of Work Safety. The explosion killed 75 people immediately and many more workers were seriously injured. Government initiated investigations on such serious incidents usually last for months in China.
Zhongrong, which was mainly engaged in electroplating aluminum-alloy wheel hubs, also had its business license revoked and has been suspended from operations since the blast, said the work safety regulator.
The company supplied General Motors and aftermarket auto-parts companies in the U.S., according to its website. GM said in a statement following the blast that while it didn’t have a direct relationship with Zhongrong, it did use parts processed by the company through a contracted third party. Such relationships are common in the auto industry, where the main supplier is known as a tier-one supplier and the suppliers below it are known as tier-two suppliers. GM said it requires its suppliers to use sub-suppliers that meet local safety standards and quality standards.
Work safety is a major concern for leaders in China, where industrial accidents kill thousands of workers every year. A scaffolding collapse on Monday at a Beijing high school killed at least 10 people and injured four. In China’s northern Jilin province, more than 100 were killed in a poultry factory fire in mid-2013 after workers were trapped behind locked doors.
Zhongrong employed about 450 people at the Kunshan plant. More than 260 people were in the factory when the blast occurred on the early morning of Aug. 2, according to previous official statements.
The company was known for high levels of dust, according to its workers. “It was like a sauna room, and dust everywhere from the ground to the air. Nobody told us how to deal with the hazards of dust,” Li Xiang, 24 years old, told The Wall Street Journal in August. He was a polishing worker at Zhongrong in 2013.
Combustible dust is a widely known industrial hazard that has led to deaths at factories around the world, including in China. Apple Inc. cited aluminum dust as a factor in two blasts, one injuring about 59 people, in 2011 at factories that supply it with electronics, including components for devices such as the iPhone. In a 2012 report, the California technology giant ordered suppliers to adopt new guidelines to deal with the hazards of dust.
—Rose Yu
The State Council also issued disciplinary demerits against a deputy provincial governor and the director of the provincial work safety bureau, and 18 other people - including factory executives and several safety and fire officials - were placed under judicial review for possible indictment, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The dust explosion at Zhongrong Metal Products Co. Ltd. in the city of Kunshan killed 75 people immediately. The death toll climbed to 146 when other workers died in the hospital. The factory supplied parts to General Motors.
Dust explosions can occur when tiny metal particles - in this case powdered aluminum - are suspended in air in an enclosed space.
The accident was China's worst industrial disaster in nine years and highlighted continuing problems with workplace safety. A 2005 mine accident in northeastern China killed 171 people.
Last June, a poultry plant fire killed 121 and injured 76 others in northeastern China. On Friday, courts sentenced two fire chiefs and two poultry farm bosses to prison terms of up to nine years for the deadly blaze.
Beijing has been holding local government officials and company executives accountable by meting out harsh penalties for work accidents with high casualties.
__________________________________
China Dust Blast Explosion Death Toll Nearly Doubles
August Explosion at Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Production Co. Killed 75 People Immediately
Medical staff move a victim from an explosion at Kunshan
Zhongrong Metal Production Co., an eastern Chinese automotive parts
factory.
Associated Press
SHANGHAI—Chinese authorities on Tuesday said an August explosion at a factory that supplied auto parts for General Motors Co. and other car makers killed at least 146 people, nearly double the initial death toll.
The Chinese government also said late Tuesday that it would prosecute three senior executives of Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Production Co., the company that owned the factory in the eastern industrial city of Kunshan where the explosion occurred, as well as 15 Kunshan government officials. The statement added that Guan Aiguo, the city’s top Communist party leader, and Lu Jun, the mayor of Kunshan, were ousted from their jobs over the matter.
The explosion in the eastern Chinese industrial city was caused by an excess level of dust that exploded after exposure to certain heat sources, an investigation team dispatched by the central government said in a statement published on the website of the State Administration of Work Safety. The explosion killed 75 people immediately and many more workers were seriously injured. Government initiated investigations on such serious incidents usually last for months in China.
Zhongrong, which was mainly engaged in electroplating aluminum-alloy wheel hubs, also had its business license revoked and has been suspended from operations since the blast, said the work safety regulator.
The company supplied General Motors and aftermarket auto-parts companies in the U.S., according to its website. GM said in a statement following the blast that while it didn’t have a direct relationship with Zhongrong, it did use parts processed by the company through a contracted third party. Such relationships are common in the auto industry, where the main supplier is known as a tier-one supplier and the suppliers below it are known as tier-two suppliers. GM said it requires its suppliers to use sub-suppliers that meet local safety standards and quality standards.
Work safety is a major concern for leaders in China, where industrial accidents kill thousands of workers every year. A scaffolding collapse on Monday at a Beijing high school killed at least 10 people and injured four. In China’s northern Jilin province, more than 100 were killed in a poultry factory fire in mid-2013 after workers were trapped behind locked doors.
Zhongrong employed about 450 people at the Kunshan plant. More than 260 people were in the factory when the blast occurred on the early morning of Aug. 2, according to previous official statements.
The company was known for high levels of dust, according to its workers. “It was like a sauna room, and dust everywhere from the ground to the air. Nobody told us how to deal with the hazards of dust,” Li Xiang, 24 years old, told The Wall Street Journal in August. He was a polishing worker at Zhongrong in 2013.
Combustible dust is a widely known industrial hazard that has led to deaths at factories around the world, including in China. Apple Inc. cited aluminum dust as a factor in two blasts, one injuring about 59 people, in 2011 at factories that supply it with electronics, including components for devices such as the iPhone. In a 2012 report, the California technology giant ordered suppliers to adopt new guidelines to deal with the hazards of dust.
—Rose Yu