March 15, 2012

Update on China pesticide factory explosion

Further to my earlier post on an explosion in a pesticide factory in China, a newspaper report indicates the following:
"The investigation found that a heat transfer oil spill under one of the three chemical reactors inside the factory caused a fire that heated the ammonium nitrate and guanidine nitrate in the reactor. Both compounds are used to make explosives and explode at high temperatures.
This caused one reactor to explode, triggering a second, massively destructive blast in the plant. "The blast revealed severe problems with the production processes at the Keeper Chemical factory," according to the investigation statement.
The factory was poorly equipped, had low safety standards, and most procedures require human labor, according to the statement. Further, the factory altered the raw materials and the heat transfer oil system without assessing the risk. In addition, the workers were unqualified. Most of them, including the head of the workshop, were middle school graduates without education in chemical production. "The workers had low qualifications for dealing with emergencies and did not meet the requirements for chemical factory production," the statement said".

Read the report in this link.

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