The legal system for hazardous chemicals management is not sound, and national legislation is urgently needed

    "At present, China's dangerous chemicals management legal system is not perfect, so it is urgent to legislate at the national level." recently, many people in the industry told China trade daily that in recent years, dangerous chemicals accidents have occurred frequently in all parts of China, especially the "August 12" dangerous goods warehouse of Ruihai company in Tianjin port, which exposed serious management problems. The government should legislate on the management of dangerous chemicals from the national level, improve legal awareness and seriously enforce legal responsibility.

    According to the statistics of the State Administration of work safety, there were 326 dangerous chemical accidents in China from 2010 to 2014, of which about 80% were dangerous chemical explosions, resulting in 2237 deaths. In recent years, dangerous chemical accidents have occurred in China, most of which have occurred in the logistics links of transportation and storage.

    The transportation and storage of dangerous chemicals are chaotic

    Mr. Ma of Cangbao online is very busy recently. He hopes to find a new warehouse in Hebei.

"Affected by the Beijing Tiananmen military parade and the particularly serious fire and explosion accident in the dangerous goods warehouse of Ruihai company in Tianjin port on August 12, the warehouses in Beijing and Tianjin can't store dangerous chemicals now. Many people asked me for help and wanted to find professional warehouses in Langfang, Shijiazhuang, Cangzhou and other places in Hebei Province." Mr. Ma told our reporter.

    Dangerous chemicals are divided into nine categories, some will explode in water, some will explode in shaking, and some are toxic. According to the current regulations on the safety management of hazardous chemicals, hazardous chemicals must be stored in special warehouses, special sites or special storage rooms. The storage methods, methods and quantities must meet national standards and be managed by special personnel. Highly toxic chemicals and other hazardous chemicals whose storage quantity constitutes a major hazard source must be stored separately in a special warehouse, and the system of sending and receiving and keeping by two people shall be implemented.

    "However, at present, there are many problems in the storage of dangerous chemicals, such as using civilian houses for storage, random stacking and mixing of dangerous chemicals," Mr. Ma said.

    According to relevant reports, there are about 3000 tons of dangerous goods in the freight yard of Ruihai International logistics company. In addition to the known 700 tons of sodium cyanide, there are 800 tons of ammonium nitrate, 500 tons of potassium nitrate, as well as various chemicals such as dichloromethane, chloroform, titanium tetrachloride, formic acid, acetic acid, hydroiodic acid, methylsulfonic acid and calcium carbide. Although the official has not made a clear statement on the cause of the accident and whether Ruihai company has any violations in the accident, there are solid, liquid and flammable goods in Ruihai company's freight yard, the situation is very complex, and all places where goods can be stacked are full of dangerous chemicals.

    In addition, according to the survey conducted by the dangerous chemicals logistics branch of China Federation of logistics and procurement at the beginning of this year, at present, the concentration of China's existing road dangerous goods transportation industry is low, and the market share of small and medium-sized dangerous chemicals logistics enterprises accounts for "half" of the whole industry. The current situation of "chaos", "small" and "scattered" leads to vicious competition in the industry, and also leads to insufficient investment and safety training of dangerous chemical storage and transportation equipment by some enterprises to a certain extent. Relevant operators do not understand the characteristics of hazardous chemicals and accident handling methods, resulting in failure to take correct measures in the event of an accident and missing the rescue opportunity.

    The survey also found that overload and overrun also exist in hazardous chemicals logistics. Many hazardous chemicals storage enterprises fail to classify and store according to the regulations or the warehouse spacing is insufficient. In stowage, there is also the phenomenon of mixed loading with ordinary goods or even mixed loading of toxic goods and food.

    According to the statistics of the State Administration of work safety, most of the dangerous chemical accidents in China in recent years have occurred in the chaotic transportation and storage links.

    The legal system of hazardous chemicals management is not perfect

    "The frequent occurrence of dangerous chemical accidents in China, especially the fire and explosion accidents in Tianjin port, has exposed various problems in China's production safety field." Xie huiding, a lawyer of Beijing Times Jiuhe law firm, said in an interview with our reporter that China has the production safety law, the regulations on the safety management of dangerous chemicals Measures for the administration of business licenses for hazardous chemicals and other laws and regulations.

    According to Xie huiding, the work safety law is a law formulated for all work safety, some of which include the management of hazardous chemicals. The regulations on the safety management of hazardous chemicals formulated in 2002 and revised in 2011 are administrative regulations promulgated and implemented by the State Council, which are lower than the laws formulated by the National People's Congress, resulting in insufficient authority. In addition, The content of the regulations on the safety management of hazardous chemicals is not detailed enough to meet the needs of the operation and management of hazardous chemicals under the new system. The measures for the administration of business licenses of hazardous chemicals are formulated according to the work safety law and the regulations on the safety management of hazardous chemicals, with a lower level.

    Xie huiding suggested that taking the opportunity of investigating and dealing with the causes and responsibilities of fire and explosion accidents in Tianjin port, introduce the safety management law of hazardous chemicals, unify the centralized department for issuing hazardous chemicals business licenses, straighten out the responsibilities of relevant functional departments, clarify the site selection of hazardous chemicals construction projects, land use planning and qualification approval conditions of warehousing and logistics enterprises, strengthen the supervision of functional departments on enterprises, and formulate Afterwards accountability system.

    According to the industrial and commercial registration information, Ruihai company, an enterprise involved in the fire and explosion accident in Tianjin port, was registered and established in November 2012. The business license items at the initial stage of establishment clearly indicate that "except for dangerous chemicals" . in April 2014, Ruihai company obtained the hazardous chemicals operation qualification approved by Tianjin transportation department for the first time, which is valid until October 16, 2014. The company officially obtained the port operation license in June 2015, that is, in the eight months from October 2014 to June 2015, the company did not have the qualification to operate hazardous chemicals.

How does Ruihai company obtain the qualification of hazardous chemicals? How can it judge whether an enterprise has no qualification to be qualified? How can an enterprise operate for another 8 months without the qualification of hazardous chemicals? How can it be held accountable after such a major accident? Xie huiding believes that these should be clearly stipulated in the hazardous chemicals safety management law.

    Yang Weicheng, director of Shandong Qindao law firm, believes that for the production, storage, use and operation of dangerous chemicals, there are some problems, such as insufficient scientific and democratic legislation, the quality of laws and regulations to be improved, poor connection between laws and regulations, lack of integrity and so on.

    "In recent years, hazardous chemicals management accidents have occurred frequently, which has brought great harm to people's lives, property and natural environment. Therefore, it is very necessary to formulate special laws to standardize the safety management of hazardous chemicals," Yang Weicheng said.

Source: China Trade News