RED CHINA – RED ALERT – THREAT OF SELF-DESTRUCTION FROM TOXIC CHEMICALS

RED CHINA – RED ALERT – THREAT OF SELF-DESTRUCTION FROM TOXIC CHEMICALS

Red China’s passionate pursuit of material wealth will bring her grief, misery, and deep sorrow. In fact, Red China is moving towards self-destruction from storing huge amounts of toxic chemicals in urban areas exposing people, and all other denizens to grave risk of unacceptable proportions. I worked for GREENPEACE USA for ten years and I commend Greenpeace China for exposing the dangers of Toxic Pollution, and in particular the unsafe storage of chemicals at Tianjin and various other places across China. At Greenpeace we consistently demand total freedom from Toxic Chemicals and they must be eliminated right at the source and we call it ‘Source Reduction’. Red China’s greed is driven by Gold, and Silver mining operations that use extremely dangerous chemicals like Sodium Cyanide. At Special Frontier Force, we recognize desire as the root cause of all human suffering.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
SPECIALFRONTIERFORCE.ESTABLISHMENT22

				The Spirits of Special Frontier ForceAt Special Frontier Force, I host ‘The Living Tibetan Spirits’ to promote Tibet Awareness.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
 

Tianjin Blast Exposes the Dangerous Proximity of Toxic Chemicals in China

 

By PATRICK BOEHLER, JOSH KELLER, K.K. REBECCA LAI, VANESSA PIAO and CRYSTAL TSE AUG. 21, 2015
The warehouse in Tianjin that exploded on August 12 was one of many buildings across China that store toxic chemicals near residential areas, in violation of safety regulations, according to a review of satellite imagery and public records.

Tianjin

Shijiazhuang

Weifang

Luoyang

Wuhan

Shanghai

Anqing

Dongguan

Highways and schools all over China are located near warehouses licensed to handle hazardous substances.

According to Chinese officials, the warehouse in Tianjin, a major port city, stored at least 700 tons of one common deadly chemical, sodium cyanide, used in mining to separate gold and silver from rock.
After the deadly explosions, residents of Tianjin have been gripped by fear and uncertainty over the presence of toxic chemicals in the city’s air and water, setting off a national debate about hidden safety hazards along the supply route for sodium cyanide.

Chinese regulations forbid facilities with hazardous chemicals to operate less than one kilometer (two-thirds of a mile) from public buildings and major roads.

The consequences of an accident at such a storage site can be disastrous. The blasts in Tianjin killed over 100 people, injured hundreds more and turned its surroundings into wasteland. Experts said it was possible that some of the sodium cyanide combined with water to form toxic vapor.

Thousands of dead fish washed up on a riverbank near the site of the explosions last week. White foam filled the streets during the first rain shower after the blast. Residents and relatives of those killed have taken to the streets in protest, demanding to be told how a hazardous chemical storage site could be so close to their homes.

The sodium cyanide stored at the warehouse originated from a factory 200 miles west of Tianjin. Chinese news media reported a foul smell in the air near the factory, and local residents said they had found white foam in the groundwater. Some complained of headaches.

Hebei Chengxin Company

Maker of sodium cyanide

Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province

Approx. 1 km
radius (0.6 miles)  Residential area, Production facility, Primary School within the restricted zone.

The company, Hebei Chengxin, is one of the largest makers of the toxic substance in Asia. Its sprawling facility is close to a primary school with up to 700 students and staff members. Company officials could not be reached for comment.

The plant’s apparent violation of minimum-distance rules reflects China’s difficulties in enforcing safety standards during a time of rapid industrialization. In May, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued draft guidelines for improving environmental protection in industrial parks, noting that some have expanded recklessly. Such parks create serious pollution and severe environmental hazards that are affecting social harmony and stability, the guidelines warned.

On Friday, Greenpeace said it had identified warehouses for hazardous chemicals at four other major port cities: Shanghai, Guangzhou, Ningbo and Qingdao. All are close to residential areas.

The Times has found several other facilities across China that produce or store sodium cyanide and other hazardous chemicals and appear to violate safe-distance regulations, putting nearby residents at risk of toxic exposure.

HENAN YANSHI TIANLONG CHEMICAL COMPANY, LUOYANG, HENAN PROVINCE.
Maker of sodium cyanide

Approximately 1 km Radius .Transport terminal, Production siteterminal

WEIFANG PARASIA CHEMICAL COMPANY, WEIFANG, SHANDONG PROVINCE
Maker of sodium cyanide

Production
site

Residential
area

Sodium cyanide was only one of the chemicals stored at the warehouse in Tianjin, owned by Rui Hai Logistics. But it is remarkably lethal: a quarter of a teaspoon, if ingested, will kill an adult in a few minutes.

Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

Officials have not explained why the warehouse was allowed to operate just 2,000 feet from a high-rise apartment complex. Local residents said they had no idea that the warehouse posed a risk.

Rui Hai International Logistics

Stores sodium cyanide

Tianjin

Approx. 1 km
radius (0.6 miles)

Donghai Road
train station

Site of explosion

Police station

Residential
buildings

Donghai Road
train station

Site of explosion

Police station

Residential
buildings

Approx. 1 km
radius (0.6 miles)

Satellite images show two other hazardous-goods warehouses in Tianjin less than three miles from the blast. The warehouses, managed by companies under the state-owned Sinochem Group, advertise that they can store hazardous chemicals. One is near a kindergarten; the other sits next to a major highway. Employees at both warehouses declined to comment.
Sinochem Tianjin Binhai Logistics Company
Stores hazardous chemicals
Tianjin

Residential
area

Kindergarten

Storage site

Approx. 1 km
radius

Tianjin Port Sinochem Hazardous Goods Logistics Company
Stores hazardous chemicals
Tianjin

Storage site

S11 Haibin
Expressway

The blast in Tianjin has prompted officials to conduct surveys on sites across the country that store hazardous chemicals. During one such inspection in Wuhan last week, local authorities found such a site just across the street from a residential compound.
Inspectors chastised managers at the company, Wuhan International Container, for violating basic safety standards, like failing to maintain an inventory and store chemicals separately, according to Chinese media reports last week. On Thursday, the City of Wuhan revoked the storage company’s license to store explosive chemicals. The company did not return phone calls.

Shanghai BeiFang Logistics Company
Stores hazardous chemicals
Shanghai

Storage
site

Approx. 1 km
radius

Wuhan International Container Company
Stores hazardous chemicals
Wuhan, Hubei Province

Storage site

Residential area

Another major producer of sodium cyanide, Anhui Shuguang, appears to have a subsidiary located not only close to a residential area of Anqing in Anhui Province, but also only a few hundred feet from the Yangtze River in central China. The Times found a kindergarten and another school within 1,000 meters of the factory. The company did not respond to questions sent by email and a person who answered the phone there declined to comment.

Anqing New Shuguang Fine Chemical Company
Maker of sodium cyanide
Anqing, Anhui Province

Kindergarten

Primary school

Production
site

430 feet

Yangtze River

Approx. 1 km
radius

Dongguan Rongshun Chemical Storage Company
Licensed to store sodium cyanide
Dongguan, Guangdong Province

Storage site

Jin’aosha
village

On Thursday, safety inspectors also visited a storage site in Dongguan, in southern Guangdong Province. The facility is licensed to store sodium cyanide, according to a man who answered the phone and said he was the operating company’s legal representative. The man, who gave only his surname, Lu, declined to say whether the site was currently storing the chemical, citing client confidentiality.

Mr. Lu said the company passed the inspection. Asked about the warehouse’s proximity to the nearby village of Jinaosha, he said he was confident that the distance exceeded one kilometer. We are definitely legal, he said. I have never done wrong to the Communist Party.

Satellite images by Digital Globe and CNES/Astrium via Google Earth

By Patrick Boehler, Josh Keller, K.k. Rebecca Lai, Vanessa Piao and Crystal Tse

Additional work by Wilson Andrews, Matthew Bloch and Derek Watkins

 

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