Nine Injured In Another Chinese Chemical Plant Explosion

The fire on Saturday night was put out after about five hours and authorities said no contamination has been detected, Xinhua said. The cause of the explosion is still unknown, and the area is still under investigation.

The explosion occurred at a factory of Shandong’s Runxing Chemical company, according to the official People’s Daily.
Environmental monitoring showed no excessive levels of pollutants in the air outside the exclusion zone set up around the blast site, but found excessive levels of cyanide in water on Sunday.

Earlier this month, 121 people were killed in Tianjin explosions. In the wake of the explosions, more than 100 chemical companies across seven provinces were told to shut down or suspend operations because of safety violations, Reuters reported.
Among the dead from the August. 12 disaster are 67 firefighters, while another 37 firefighters missing, the government said on its official microblog.

China has become the world’s largest producer and consumer of chemicals used in industries such as automotive, construction and textiles on the back of its decades-long economic boom.

The cause of the explosion in the China chemical plant is still unknown. Zibo is a major storage site for fuel oil and chemicals in the region.

State media say that the warehouse, which stored sodium cyanide and other risky chemicals, was too close to homes and that its operators may have obtained falsified safety approvals.

The fire was brought under control by late Saturday night, the South China Morning Post said.

The laws state that enormous warehouses which retailer harmful chemical compounds must be at the least 1,000 meters from public buildings and transportation networks, media stated.