Monday, January 12, 2015

Total number of dead climbs from 75 to 146.....



When government safety organizations fail to enforce their country’s laws, some isolated companies will ignore the safety of their workers. Here is an update on the largest aluminium dust/fine explosion in our industry that occurred in 2014.

China’s Cabinet has announced the firing of the top two officials in an eastern city where an explosion at an aluminium wheel factory in August 2014 killed 146 people in the country’s worst industrial accident since 2005.

The State Council also issued disciplinary demerits against a deputy provincial governor and the director of the provincial work safety bureau, and 18 other people — including factory executives and several safety and fire officials — were placed under judicial review for possible indictment, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The dust explosion at Zhongrong Metal Products Co. Ltd. in the city of Kunshan killed 75 people immediately. The death toll climbed to 146 when other workers died in the hospital. The factory supplied parts to General Motors.

Dust explosions can occur when tiny metal particles — in this case powdered aluminum — are suspended in air in an enclosed space.

In Kunshan, a national investigation team found that local officials were negligent in enforcing safety regulations and that plant management failed to provide safety training for workers and ignored rules on building spacing, density in manufacturing lines, dust cleanup, and use of anti-explosion equipment.

The state said it is aiming to hold local government officials and company executives accountable by meting out harsh penalties for work accidents with high casualties.

According to officials, the incident was China’s worst industrial disaster in nine years and highlighted continuing problems with workplace safety. In 2005, a mine incident in northeastern China killed 171 people.

A vast majority of companies in our industry take worker safety serious. Unfortunately there are a few isolated companies who do not take worker safety serious. Not surprising these isolated companies have a poor safety record. As with all incidents this explosion could have been prevented if the company followed the industry’s best practices toward safety.

The Aluminum Association (US) has an excellent resource which is considered by many as the industry’s best practices toward safety. It can be viewed here.


The Aluminium Times Magazine had an article about aluminium dust/fines. It can be viewed below.


The Aluminium Times Magazine had an article about this incident. It can be viewed below.


The Aluminium Plant Safety Blogs offers our sincere condolences to the deceased families, friends, and coworkers. It is our hope that this tragedy results in better enforcement of working conditions in China. 

Please Comment.

6 comments:

  1. This incident is sad in so many ways. The CEO, plant manager, and ehs manager have all been arrested. I would anticipate that they will be tried for murder, and executed. Which commonly happens in China when workplace incidents make international news.

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  2. Executed? It just continues to get worse....

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  3. Yes executed. In China they will be tried for the "murder' of 146 people. Others on this forum may know better, but I believe China considers workplace fatalities to be murder. I wrote about this tragedy a few months ago for the Aluminium Times. This facility had a fire a week or so before that was able to be extinguished that was a forewarning. Office workers were quoted as saying that after each work day there would dust on their desk to the thickness of a coin.

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  4. The working conditions sounded (based on employee comments) unbearable. It never occurred to me management would be tried for murder and then executed. Do you think this tragic event will improve work place safety in China? I wonder what impact this will have on businesses in China and how they treat work place safety.

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  5. The conditions were unbearable. I read comments that turnover rate was extremely high. Unfortunately, I do not expect the overall work plant safety to improve for Chinese owned facilities. Conditions in foreign owned facilities is normally much better. I dislike being a naysayer but I do not believe this tragedy will have any impact on businesses in China. There was a huge molten metal explosion in 2007 at an aluminium plant. The destruction of the aluminium facility reminded one of a huge bomb going off. The explosion happened on a Thursday. The following Sunday a coal mine which was built at a base of a river levee flooded. After a very hard rain the levee was breached and two mine shafts flooded. Over 172 miners drowned. The frequency of tragedies in some countries occurs with such regularity that their citizens become used to them....

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  6. You'd think that the possibility of being tried for murder and executed would be a determent. Ultimately, it appears the country as a whole gets away with these atrocities. They are rewarded with enough business to continue doing business as usual. That's too bad....

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