APRIL 22, 2015
BEIJING, CHINA
China's work safety watchdog is blaming this month's
explosion at a chemical plant in southeast China on the factory's management
and failings in local government supervision.
The April 6 blast and ensuing hydrocarbon fire at the
paraxylene plant in Fujian province left six people hospitalized and renewed
discussion on China's social media about the potential dangers of factories
that produce the toxic chemical.
Huang Yi, spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety,
told reporters Wednesday that the bosses of the Goure PX Plant chose the
cheapest bidder to build the facility at the expense of safety.
He said a furnace was too close to storage tanks, so when
unspecified materials leaked into the furnace because of a broken tube, the
blast tore into a tank and caused the fire.
Cheap and unsafe construction? In China? We would never have guessed that (sarcasm
here).
Source: Centre Daily Times