New rules to target chemical accidents
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Shanghai Daily, July 7, 2011
The Chinese chemical industry faces a raft of new regulations as it has become the number one source of man-made environmental disasters in the country.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection received 119 reports of emergent environmental accidents from January to July last year, of which 70 percent were related to hazardous chemicals, said Li Xinmin, an inspector at the ministry's pollution control department.
The government is now drafting a five-year plan to regulate the chemicals sector, he told a Shanghai seminar, adding that the location of chemical companies pose potential risks of chemical spills into rivers.
About 45 percent of China's chemical plants are along the Yangtze River and 17.7 percent along the Yellow River, Li said.
A chemical company in Zhejiang Province dumped toxic chemicals including benzene and alkene into a river in early June, leaving thousands of people without tap water and triggering panic buying of bottled water in Hangzhou.
More than 80 percent of investments in China's chemical industry went to areas near rivers or the coast, Li said, citing a ministry survey conducted after a 2005 explosion at a PetroChina Co plant in Jilin Province.
The Shanghai Securities News reported in September that the environment ministry had required about one-third of China's domestically listed companies to publish an annual environmental report following a series of accidents in industries ranging from mining to petroleum manufacturing.
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