The Story Behind The Blast

By+yuan+yuan

On august 2， an explosion ripped through a factory in Kunshan， east Chinas Jiangsu Province. As of August 5， the confirmed death toll had reached 75， with a further 185 having been injured.

The explosion came from the wheel-polishing workshop of an auto parts plant owned by Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Products Co. a total of 265 workers were on site when the incident occurred.

The blast left two large holes in the factorys wall， with large equipment and pieces of broken glass scattered around.

thick with dust

Kunshan Zhongrong is a Taiwanese-funded company located in Kunshans economic and technological development zone， 70 km from Shanghai. On its website， the company states that it has 450 employees and lists General Motors as a client.

Only two months prior， a separate blaze hit the same workshop， though it was extinguished quickly and was quickly forgotten about. a middle-level manager who refused to give his full name revealed that Wu Jitao， the company chairman， had expressed concern over the workshops safety and demanded the dust collection system be replaced as the systems that were installed were too old to remove dust efficiently. large concentrations of metal polishing dust can easily cause explosions.

The flammable dust in the workshop was also responsible for the blaze two months prior， but the replacement of the dust extraction system was delayed due to an urgent order that needed to be filled by august 10. This is the same reason that there were 265 workers in the plant on the Saturday morning.

The workshops dust problem was so severe that one female worker said that after only half a day， the sediment on her desk would be as thick as a coin.

liu Fuwen， another worker， said that people often felt their chests were tight and had difficulty breathing once they entered the workshop.

“The workshop had none of the necessary equipment to remove dust or monitor its concentration，” said Liu. “If government officials came to inspect the factory， management would ask the workers to clean the dust before they arrived.”

Song Changxing， a former worker at Zhongrong， said he began vomiting large amounts of blood and suffered from nosebleeds before he went to the hospital， where he discovered he was also suffering from pneumoconiosis， an occupational lung disease caused by inhaling dust.

“The dust from polishing the metal began piling up as soon as we started to work，” said the 44-year-old， who worked for the company from 2004 to 2012. “after a few hours， every worker would be covered in it. Only the workersteeth remained their original color.”endprint

“No one ever taught us any safety regulations， except that we cant smoke or light a fire，” Song said. “But some workers also smoked in a bathroom about 5 meters away from the workshop.”

Song has been prescribed a number of medications for his pneumoconiosis. Though he has spent about 200，000 yuan （$32，360） on medication， Zhongrong has only agreed to pay less than 80，000 yuan.

taking action

President Xi Jinping has ordered all-out efforts to treat the injured and demanded a full investigation into the accident.

yang Dongliang， Director of the State administration of Work Safety， was assigned as the head of the investigation team.

victims have been sent to 15 medical insti-tutions across Jiangsu Province and Shanghai Municipality.

a member of medical staff at Kunshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine said most of the injured had suffered external burns as well as burns to their respiratory systems.

Health officials said some of the injured have been transferred from Kunshan to the nearby cities of Suzhou， Wuxi and Shanghai.

Doctors and nurses specializing in burns at Shanghais Ruijin Hospital came to Kunshan to help， which are “crowded with injured patients，”according to the hospital.

authorities in Kunshan have opened a hotline for relatives， who desperate to locate loved ones missing after the blast.

“When we answer the phone， we record basic information about the missing victims that the relative is looking for. That includes their name， appearance， identity number， and the home location，” said Qin an， Deputy Director of Kunshan Public Service Center.

People in several nearby cities have lined up to donate blood for those injured in the accident.

The tragedy has dealt a blow to Jiangsu Province， whose capital city Nanjing is hosting the youth Olympic Games this month. vice Governor Shi Heping said in mid-July that thorough work safety inspections should be conducted ahead of the event.

Probes into past work safety cases showed local officials sometimes turn a blind eye to companies illegal operations.

There was “very serious dereliction of duty，”said yang with the State administration of Work Safety at a meeting on the investigation of the incident.

He said that Kunshan Zhongrong shoulders the majority of responsibility for the accident， but local government departments were also to blame for poor implementation of regulations.endprint

Two senior executives at Kunshan Zhongrong have been placed under police custody. Suzhou， which has Kunshan under its jurisdiction， has suspended operations more than in 135 companies that produce heavy dust by polishing metals. The nearby city of Nanjing has also suspended operations of similar companies to ensure safety.

The investigation so far has found that the workshop was neither designed nor built as it should have been for such dangerous work. It has been revealed that there was a long list of violations of the countrys safety rules： too many assembly lines； extraction fans were not installed at every work station； the electric facilities within the workshop were not up to code； the dust was not cleared daily as it should have been； and workers did not receive any safety training.

On august 4， China announced a nationwide safety overhaul on explosive materials. The campaign targets factories that process aluminum， magnesium， coal， wood， paper， tobacco， cotton and plastic， among other materials that could lead to fire hazards.endprint