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