Toxic chemicals must be moved
Print Edition
A HAZARDOUS chemicals company has been told to move containers from three of its yards as they are too close to homes and roads, the city’s transport commission said yesterday.
Shanghai Daily yesterday saw toxic chemicals at a yard run by Shanghai Gangcheng Hazardous Substances Logistics Company next to a community building and 100 meters from homes.
By law, these should be 1 kilometer away.
This was uncovered in city inspections following explosions in a chemical warehouse in Tianjin on August 12 in which 159 people have been confirmed dead, with 14 still missing.
The three yards, Gangcheng, Huaying and Jianghai, are all in Waigaoqiao, the Pudong New Area and run by Shanghai Gangcheng, one of the city’s biggest hazardous substances logistics companies.
“The products are being collected by clients and some are being transferred to yards at Yangshan Port,” an official at the Huaying storage yard, who asked not to be named, told Shanghai Daily.
“Currently, we only have containers going out. This place and the other two yards will be empty by September 20.”
Transfer work began a week ago.
The 32,000-square-meter Huaying storage yard is surrounded by homes, some just 100 meters away.
When Shanghai Daily visited the site yesterday, several containers labelled as containing solid hexamethylenediamine were separated from a local village neighborhood committee building by just a wall.
The A20 highway and Metro Line 6 are both about 500 meters from the site.
Used in the production of polymers, hexamethylenediamine is moderately toxic but can cause serious burns and severe irritation.
Quite remote at time
Under regulations issued in 2001, medium and large hazardous substances storage facilities should be at least 1 kilometer from public buildings and traffic routes.
The Shanghai Gangcheng official said the storage yard was established in 1994 and used for storing hazardous substances from around 1999, when there were fewer homes nearby.
“It was quite remote at that time. The place where the village committee building now stands was a rice field,” said the official.
Last Saturday, villagers holding a reunion meal in the neighborhood committee yard set up pots over open fires close to the containers of hexamethylenediamine, the Shanghai Morning Post reported.
“I didn’t know the containers contained hazardous substances,” a 60-year-old villager, surnamed Zhang, told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
But Zhang added that she wasn’t particularly concerned as storage sites and containers were so commonplace in the area.
However, elderly residents in Hexiang Jiayuan, within 700 meters of the yard, told Shanghai Television that they felt worried and wanted the hazardous substances moved immediately.
When Shanghai Daily visited, 4 trucks loaded with containers labeled hazardous substances, left the yard within 10 minutes.
A Huaying yard worker, surnamed Lu, said sprinkler systems had kept the containers cool during hot weather.
“Wherever the storage is, the proper management of hazardous substances storage is what matters most,” said Lu.
Shanghai Gangcheng’s hazardous substances business is being moved to the Yangshan Port area, with other products stored at the three Waigaoqiao yards.
Meanwhile, vehicles carrying hazardous materials to or from Shanghai must first register in a nationwide network and be entered into the city’s database, under a measure announced by authorities on Monday. Taking effect on September 10, vehicles are monitored via GPS and other technologies.
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