People’s Daily: Hazardous Chemical Enterprises—Safety Must Meet Standards, Subjected to Rigorous Inspections One by One

　　From fiber textiles and food packaging to rail transit and aerospace, the chemical industry is indispensable to both everyday life and economic development. However, chemical production involves flammable, explosive, and toxic or hazardous substances, with numerous process steps and significant risks; accidents can easily endanger public safety, drawing intense societal attention.

　　China has become the world’s largest producer of chemicals. What is the current state of workplace safety, and what fundamental issues remain? Our reporter interviewed relevant government departments, enterprises, and industry experts.

　　Enterprises are facing a shortage of skilled workers, while in some regions, regulatory capacity is severely inadequate.

　　Wang Rujun, Deputy Chief Engineer at the China Academy of Safety Science and Technology, stated that, overall, chemical and hazardous‑chemical accidents have been on a downward trend in recent years. In 2018, the number of chemical accidents nationwide fell by 19.6% year on year. However, it should also be recognized that the total number of chemical accidents remains substantial, and the situation remains grave.

　　Among these factors, the chemical industry’s large scale and widespread presence, coupled with its weak foundation for workplace safety, constitute one of the key challenges. “Of the 210,000 chemical production and business enterprises, more than 80% are small and medium-sized, characterized by low design standards, outdated technology and equipment, and insufficient investment in safety,” said Wang Rujun.

　　Compared with the large-scale, widespread chemical industry, there is a severe shortage of professionals with chemical engineering backgrounds and expertise.

　　On the one hand, companies are facing a shortage of skilled workers, and the training of chemical‑industry laborers and professional managers is failing to keep pace with industrial development. “In recent years, recruiting in the chemical sector has become increasingly difficult, with high employee turnover—many staff leave after just one or two years,” says Sun Haifeng, Safety Director at Jiangxi Lihua Chemical. Even more concerning, he notes, is the pronounced mismatch between what schools teach and what businesses need: “Some newly graduated chemical‑engineering students lack practical hands‑on experience; they cannot operate chemical equipment such as pumps and compressors, nor do they understand the properties of chemical materials, requiring extensive time to train them in specialized skills.”

　　Hao Jun, Deputy Chief Engineer of the China Chemical Safety Association, believes that the shortage of skilled personnel and the low overall competence of workers are another key factor hindering safe production in the chemical industry. “In some recent chemical accidents, many were attributable to operators whose qualifications did not meet regulatory requirements; in fact, some had not even completed primary school and lacked even basic chemical knowledge.”

　　The Ministry of Emergency Management recently conducted an inspection of Shijiazhuang Hehe Chemical Co., Ltd. Fertilizer Inspections—both overt and covert—revealed that the deputy general manager of production, the head of the equipment department, and three operators from the sulfuric acid workshop were all unaware of the critical toxic‑gas alarm thresholds and permissible exposure limits for their respective positions. At Shenyang Zhengxing New Materials Co., Ltd., even the operator responsible for a styrene tank could not correctly identify the high‑level alarm setpoint for the storage vessel. If frontline personnel are this ill‑informed, how can we possibly talk about safe chemical production?

　　On the other hand, many localities suffer from a severe shortage of chemical‑safety regulatory capacity, a problem that becomes increasingly acute at the grassroots level. According to regulations, local safety‑supervision enforcement agencies are required to ensure that professional regulators account for at least 75% of their total staff. In practice, however, this requirement is often poorly implemented; in numerous cities and counties, the proportion of specialized personnel hovers around just 20%. For example, Shandong Province, a major chemical‑producing region, is home to more than 1,900 hazardous‑chemical manufacturing enterprises and over 20,000 trading firms. Yet in some of its cities and counties, the number of dedicated regulatory staff is only two or three, while park‑level safety‑supervision departments typically have just one or two officers.

　　The principal responsibility of enterprises must be fulfilled, and issues such as unscientific park planning must be given due attention.

　　Since last year, several chemical safety incidents have occurred, resulting in major explosions, fires, and poisoning. “However, companies have not drawn sufficiently profound lessons from these accidents, and similar problems persist,” said Cheng Changjin, Chief Engineer of the China Chemical Safety Association.

　　The issue of corporate principal responsibility being effectively hollowed out is far from uncommon: in some cases, the person in charge is merely a figurehead—present on paper but absent in practice—and during emergency‑response inspections, a leader who should have reached the site in five minutes took nearly an hour. In other instances, risk management and control are little more than formalities: a company that has been shut down for an extended period reported to local authorities that all materials had been removed and risks were under control, yet in reality, six out of eight storage tanks still contained residual materials. “Principal responsibility rests with the enterprise; if the enterprise fails to take proactive measures, workplace safety will never improve,” said Hao Jun.

　　Some industry insiders believe that the current situation—where government action on hazardous‑chemical safety is urgent while enterprises remain indifferent—is particularly pronounced. The root cause lies in the excessively low cost of non‑compliance, especially given insufficient pre‑emptive penalties; for many companies, fines of just a few tens of thousands of yuan carry little deterrent effect. To address this, the penalties for violations should be significantly increased, the “blacklist” system must be rigorously enforced, and every violation uncovered should serve as a powerful warning to the broader sector.

　　At the same time, there are weak links in safety oversight: some local governments lack a strong awareness of safety red lines and pursue the development of the chemical industry in an uncontrolled manner, which can easily lead to an increase in accident risks. “Some regions have failed to take into account their own capacity for safety regulation and the availability of skilled personnel in the chemical sector, lowering entry barriers and relaxing standards—sometimes even granting approval to enterprises that do not meet basic safety production requirements—thereby allowing outdated production capacity to take root,” said Wang Rujun.

　　Of particular concern is the emergence of several new developments. Today, many localities are actively encouraging chemical enterprises to relocate to standardized chemical industrial parks; however, they often lack a well‑structured, comprehensive master plan. “Chemical industrial parks are concentrated hubs for multiple stages—production, storage, and transportation—of hazardous chemicals. When an accident occurs at one facility, it can easily pose a threat to the entire surrounding area,” notes Cao Wen, Director of the Safety Supervision Bureau of the Yangzhou Chemical Industrial Park Management Committee. She adds that the level of development among different chemical parks varies significantly, with some suffering from poorly conceived site‑planning and insufficient integrated management, thereby increasing potential risks.

　　For example, the Ministry of Emergency Management found that chemical industrial parks in Wuhai, Ordos, Alashan, and other areas are densely concentrated—some are separated by only a single road, standing in close proximity to one another—and lack an established mechanism for coordinated safety management. In addition, some parks do not have dedicated parking facilities for hazardous chemicals, leaving drivers engaged in a game of cat-and-mouse with traffic authorities, municipal departments, and other relevant agencies.

　　Strengthen the safety foundation by focusing on process equipment, information technology development, and talent cultivation.

　　Given the relatively high overall profit margins in the chemical industry, corporate practices such as prioritizing profitability over safety and rushing to meet deadlines and production targets are on the rise, making it difficult to achieve workplace safety in the sector overnight. What measures should be taken?

　　The principal official of the Ministry of Emergency Management stated that the immediate priority is to organize experts to conduct a thorough reassessment of enterprises handling explosive, flammable, and highly toxic hazardous chemicals. Any facility failing to meet the required standards must undertake rectification; if, after rectification, it still falls short of safety requirements, it shall be ordered to suspend production or shut down altogether. Enterprises must strictly fulfill their primary responsibility, and efforts to enhance workplace safety must be continuously strengthened.

　　Hao Jun argues that safety production responsibilities should be assessed through quantifiable metrics. “Many chemical enterprises lack specificity in their job‑specific responsibility systems. For example, the physicochemical properties of hazardous chemicals—such as their explosion and flash points—are not clearly defined for each position; there is insufficient awareness of critical process control parameters like temperature, which can easily trigger accidents; and key emergency response procedures are not adequately highlighted. As a result, employees do not know where the primary focus of safety management lies, what specific risks they face, or how to conduct precise performance evaluations and ensure accountability is effectively implemented.”

　　In the long term, the chemical industry can strengthen its safety foundation in three key areas.

　　Accelerate the phase-out of outdated processes and equipment, and reduce the number of operators in high-risk positions and areas through automation. Relevant authorities have analyzed 10 typical chemical‑industry accidents from 2017, four of which revealed deficiencies or failure to commission automated control systems. Recently, Jiangsu Province issued a plan to upgrade safety and environmental protection in the chemical industry, mandating that by the end of next year, the retrofitting and upgrading rate of automated control systems for operating facilities involving the “two key areas and one major hazard” must reach 100%.

　　Promote the development of information technology. Experts point out that, at present, in the production, storage, and use of hazardous chemicals, there is a lack of information-sharing channels across relevant stages, and traceability and flow‑monitoring mechanisms are inadequate. “Once an accident occurs, knowing what raw materials are on site and what their properties are—without this information being promptly ascertained—can impede emergency response efforts.”

　　In response, the Office of the State Council Work Safety Committee and the Ministry of Emergency Management have announced that, by the end of this year, a nationwide networked monitoring and early-warning system for hazardous chemicals will be preliminarily established. All critical real-time surveillance video feeds and early-warning data from enterprises with Level I and Level II major hazard sources will be integrated into the system. Furthermore, chemical industrial parks with Level I and Level II major hazard sources will have safety supervision information platforms in place, enabling real-time, dynamic oversight of enterprises and automated early warning capabilities.

　　Strengthening the development of a professional workforce. According to Xie Chuanwei, Director of the Safety Department at Luxi Group, the group has partnered with Liaocheng University to establish the Luxi Chemical Engineering College and has been implementing order-based training for specialized talent for more than a decade. “The talent cultivated through this targeted program aligns seamlessly with the company’s needs, ensuring peace of mind in their deployment.”

Source: People’s Daily Online Author: People’s Daily Online Editor: xwbj3