Clean-up operations continue at China blast site
Rescue workers in China continue to clean up hundreds of tons of cyanide at the site of recent massive blasts at a chemicals plant in the northern city of Tianjin amid public criticism over the official response to the accident.
As the clean-up efforts continued on Monday, it was revealed that the company operating the storage facility had been storing hundreds of tons of cyanide, reportedly almost 30 times the legal amount.
Local residents expressed skepticism about the official claim that the air and water in the city remain safe.
“Around 700 tons” of sodium cyanide was being stored at the site of the huge blasts, said Tianjin’s Vice Mayor He Shusheng at a Monday press conference.
This is while the Beijing News daily reported that the warehouse was only authorized to hold 24 tons of the substance, citing the storage plans that it had obtained.
The vice mayor also reiterated that a major, “very complicated and difficult” clean-up was underway on Monday. He also said that the effort faced difficulties with the presence of 16,500 empty shipping containers and amid concerns that expected rain could release hydrogen cyanide gas.
The August 12 explosions at the facility set off a huge fireball and demolished a wide area and raised major concerns over the potential impact of toxic pollutants being released from the accident site.
Meanwhile, authorities announced that the closest water test point to the explosion site revealed cyanide 27.4 times the standard level on Sunday.
According to local reports, Sodium cyanide had been found as far as nearly a kilometer from the facility.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention further said that military chemical and nuclear experts have been dispatched to the site; it said experts from producers of sodium cyanide – exposure to which may prove “rapidly fatal” – have also been dispatched.
Chinese authorities announced on Monday that the death toll from the tragic incident had climbed to 114, with 70 more people still missing. They said, however, that some of the missing could be among the 60 corpses that have not yet been identified.
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