2015年9月8日星期二

时间轴:中国化工灾难大事记—中外对话

中外对话以天津大爆炸为鉴,回顾过去十年发生的重大环境灾难事故。

一系列危化品事故中,最近的一次发生在天津。事故发生以后,公众对化工厂安全标准的担忧日益增加。 图片来源:baidu

 

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八月初,天津的一家化学品仓库发生了严重爆炸。此次事故是中国近些年来最严重的环境灾难之一。与此同时,中国公众对化工厂安全的担忧也日益增加。

 

上周末(822日),山东省发生的另外一起爆炸事故进一步凸显了中国工业设施事故防控所面临的挑战。目前,中国是世界上最大的化学品生产国和消费国;一方面中国希望增加化工产能,另一方面随着中产阶级的日益强大、环境意识的不断增加,二者之间产生了冲突。

 

20158月:中国东北部港口城市天津发生两起特大爆炸,事故造成158人死亡,其中94名为消防员。爆炸发生地点存放的剧毒化学物氰化钠远远高于安全水平。数百名愤怒的居民联合起来,抗议该危险化学品仓库监管不善,并且距居民区过近,有违国家相关规定。爆炸发生一周之后,中国反腐部门称将对中国安监局领导进行调查。

 

20154月:福建省漳州市古雷PX工厂发生爆炸,造成15人受伤;而两年之前,这家工厂曾发生过相似的事故,当地官员在2013年承诺该类事故将不会再次发生。由于公众对PX工厂十分不满,上海在6月末爆发了大规模民众抗议活动。

 

20148月:上海昆山的一家台湾汽车零件工厂发生火灾,火焰引燃金属粉末,进而引发爆炸,造成至少75人死亡,200人重伤。上海工作安全管理部门称其在此之前已经多次警告该工厂有可能发生爆炸,但均被忽视。

 

20144月:黄河兰州段(当地唯一饮用水来源)发生苯泄漏,造成居民两天之内无法使用饮用水。中国石油天然气集团公司(CNPC)的当地分公司同意就事故造成的空气、水源污染赔付兰州政府1亿元人民币(约1600万美元)。这些赔偿金将用来升级当地中石油分公司的排污系统,以防止污染物泄露到当地土壤和地下水层中,这在当时是中国工业事故中罚金最高的事故之一。

 

201311月:青岛原油管道发生爆炸,造成55人死亡和黄海石油泄露。中国国家安监局调查发现,这起事故的主要原因是石油管道布局不合理、维修保养不善、以及应急行动不力。中国石化公开道歉,并开除9名高管。

 

20136月:吉林一家家禽加工厂发生氨泄漏,进而引发大火,造成113人死亡。这家工厂没有设置任何紧急出口,大多数的逃生路线也被锁死。

 

20116月:中国东北部的渤海湾发生石油泄露,污染了5500平方公里的海域,是中国最严重的一起海洋环境灾难。相关部门将事故规模隐瞒了一个月,直到被媒体揭穿。该油田的联合运行商——康菲石油和中国海油被勒令设立两项基金,用来清除和赔偿该事故造成的破坏。渔民也向法庭提起诉讼,要求对收入损失进行补偿。

 

20107月:大连市附近发生爆炸,造成原油泄露。这在当时是中国最严重的一起石油环境灾难。官方调查发现,事故是因为一艘油轮违规操作,在卸载石油之后,向输油管道内灌注了含有强氧化剂的"脱硫化氢剂"。五年之后,中石油被起诉,要求其赔偿3200万美元,这是中国公益诉讼中金额最高的一桩诉讼案。

 

200511月:吉林的一家化工厂发生爆炸,将近100吨含有苯和硝基苯等剧毒化学物质的污染物泄露至松花江,造成哈尔滨(中国北方最大的城市之一)水源供应中断接近一周时间。调查结果表明,这家工厂缺少此类事故的应急方案,吉林当地环境部门也没有全面、准确地报告潜在的水源污染风险。中国国家环境保护总局(现环境保护部)局长解振华引咎辞职,并被指责在早期低估了灾难的规模。同年,在国家媒体对当地官员故意隐瞒泄露事故、拖延筹备工作、在哈尔滨引起恐慌等问题提出批评之后,吉林市的一市副市长自缢身亡。

 

翻译:Sherlock

 

伊泽贝尔·安南,中外对话实习生

 

The huge explosions at a chemical storage facility in Tianjin earlier this month was one of China's most serious environmental disasters in recent times – and came against the backdrop of growing concerns among the Chinese public about the safety of chemical plants.

 

Late last week, another explosion, this time in Shandong province, further underlined the challenge of preventing accidents at facilities in China. The country is by far the biggest producer and consumer of chemicals where the need for new capacity often clashes with the wishes of an increasingly emboldened and environmentally-aware middle class. 

 

2015 – August:  Two huge blasts in the northeastern port city of Tianjin kill 114 people including 21 firefighters. Levels of sodium cyanide, a highly toxic chemical stored at the site, remain many times over the safe limit.  Hundreds of angry residents have protested about lax oversight of the storage site and an apparent breach of rules on the distance between residential areas and chemical facilities. In the week after the blast, China's anti-graft watchdog said it will investigate the chief of China's State Administration of Work Safety.

 

2015 – April: An explosion ripped through the Gulei PX factory in Zhangzhou, Fujian province, leaving 15 injured, almost two years after a similar accident at the plant had prompted a local official to promise in 2013 that it would never happen again. Public unease about PX plants erupted into mass protests in Shanghai in late June.

 

2014  – August: A blast at a Taiwanese-owned car parts factory in Kunshan near Shanghai killed at least 75 and seriously injures 200 after a flame ignited metallic dust. The city's work safety regulator said it had warned the factory of the potential for an explosion several times, but it was ignored.

 

2014 – April:  A benzene leak into the Lanzhou section of the Yellow River – the only source of drinking water for the provincial capital – left residents without running water for two days. A subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has since agreed to pay the government of Lanzhou 100 million yuan (US$16 million) for incidents that polluted air and water in the city in the northwestern province of Gansu. The money will be used to upgrade the drainage system at the CNPC subsidiary to prevent any more leaks into the city's soil and water table, and at the time was one of the largest fines paid in China for an industrial accident.

 

2013 – November: An explosion at a pipeline in Qingdao killed 55 people and leaked crude oil into Yellow Sea. An investigation led by the State Administration of Work Safety found poor pipeline layout and maintenance, and an insufficient emergency response, was mainly responsible for the accident. Sinopec apologised publicly and nine senior executives were fired.

 

2013 – June: A huge fire sparked by an ammonia leak in a poultry plant in Jilin province killed 113. The factory had no emergency exit while most escape routes were locked.

 

2011 – June: An oil spill polluted 5,500 square kilometres of northeastern China's Bohai Bay, the worst marine environment disaster in China. The scale of the accident was covered up by the authorities for up to a month before Chinese press reports uncovered the scale of the damage.  The joint operators of the oilfield, ConocoPhillips and China National Offshore Oil Co, were ordered to establish two funds to clean up and compensate for any damages arising from the incidents. Fishermen went to court to file a lawsuit for financial losses.

 

2010 – July: A spill of crude oil following an explosion near Dalian was at that time one of China's worst oil-related environmental disasters. Official investigations found that the explosion was caused by improper injections of strongly oxidizing desulfurizer into the oil pipeline after an oil vessel had finished unloading its oil. PetroChina was sued US$32 million in one of nation's largest public interest lawsuits five years later.

 

2005 – Nov:  Supply of water to Harbin, one of northern China's biggest cities, was cut off for almost a week after explosions at a chemical plant in Jilin polluted the Songhua river with around 100 tonnes of pollutants containing highly-poisonous benzene and nitrobenzene. Investigators concluded that the plant had had no effective contingency plans for such accidents and Jilin environment officials had failed to report the potential water pollution risks comprehensively and accurately. The State Environmental Protection Administration (now the Ministry of Environmental Protection) minister Xie Zhenhua lost his job because of the spill, and was also blamed for initially underestimating the scale of the disaster. A vice mayor of Jilin city hanged himself that year after national media criticised city officials for deliberately covering up the spill, delaying preparations and causing panic in Harbin.

 

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