Focus Interview: Identifying Risks and Hidden Dangers, Building Safety Lines, Production | Safety | Risks
CCTV News: This June is the 22nd National Safety Production Month, with the theme of "Everyone talks about safety, everyone will respond in an emergency". In recent times, production safety accidents have occurred frequently, causing casualties and property damage, which is heartbreaking and profound, and has also attracted attention from all sectors of society to safety production. The State Council Work Safety Committee recently issued the Overall Plan for the 2023 National Special Investigation and Rectification of Major Accident Hazards, deploying a comprehensive investigation and rectification of major accident hazards. The joint law enforcement team of the Ministry of Emergency Management has also rushed to various parts of the country to carry out production and operation activities such as electrical welding and hot work operations, outsourcing and leasing, as well as special hidden inspections and secret investigations on the safe export of labor-intensive industrial enterprises.
In public places where consumers gather, there is often a large flow of people, but in some places, the safety hazards in public places are more prominent, which is worrying. Chamber of Secrets Escape is a place where activities such as live escape, murder scenes, and sitcoms are carried out in specific confined space scenes. A escape room store located in a shopping mall in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China. In order to enhance the "immersive" experience, the escape room store usually uses partitions to create a dim, enclosed, and narrow space, and uses a large amount of combustible decorations such as fabric and plastic. In the event of a fire, it is easy to cause mass casualties.
The safety exits and fire exits are vital passageways in the event of accidents, which are also one of the key contents of this inspection. In this store, inspectors found that the ceiling decoration of some rooms was obstructing the sprinkler head, some evacuation sign lights were obstructed, some rooms were not equipped with evacuation signs, and the doors connecting to the mall were not equipped with Class B fire doors.
According to incomplete statistics, there are currently over 10000 escape rooms nationwide and they are still growing rapidly. Due to the fact that these stores are often located in densely populated areas such as large supermarkets, the consequences of a fire are often unimaginable. In 2019, a secret escape store in Poland caught fire, resulting in a tragic death of 5 and 1 injury.
Subsequently, the reporter followed the joint law enforcement team to a hospital and found that the safety hazards here were also quite prominent. This integrated Chinese and Western medicine hospital does not have a separate fire control room, only a corner has been created in the lobby on the first floor for fire monitoring; The setting of two evacuation staircases does not meet the standards; Part of the exterior windows on certain floors are equipped with iron fences that affect evacuation and firefighting rescue. Although there are many problems, the hospital has yet to rectify them due to the pursuit of economic benefits.
The reporter randomly selected a safety exit to see if it could smoothly exit the hospital. It was found that this so-called emergency passage not only lacks safety exit signs, but is also occupied by a large number of iron cabinets containing medicinal materials, which does not meet national standards. Similar situations also exist in other places. In Guangzhou, inspectors found that the main responsible persons of multiple enterprises were neglecting the management of enterprise safety, and various hidden dangers were causing concern. For example, Guangzhou Qiancai Stage Lighting Equipment Co., Ltd. has stacked numerous goods in the stairwell, which affects evacuation; The safety exit of Guangzhou Beifeng Electronics Co., Ltd. has been locked, and the safety passage has been occupied; There is only one safety exit in the packaging factory of Koyanli paper products, and the quantity does not meet the requirements.
The safety exit is the exit for life, and ensuring that the safety exit is unobstructed is the minimum requirement for building safety. In 2021, a major fire accident occurred in Zhecheng, Henan Province on June 25th, causing 18 deaths in a martial arts school fire. One of the important reasons for this accident is the blockage of safety exits and the installation of anti-theft nets on external windows. Accidents warn the world that safety is of paramount importance.
In addition to unsafe safety exits, multiple companies have also faced prominent issues of illegal hot work and unlicensed and fake certificates in electrical welding, resulting in chaotic management. The implementation of a hot work approval system and the certification of special workers are management mechanisms that must be strictly implemented in the field of safety production. However, among the 24 electrical welding workers randomly selected by the joint law enforcement team in Fuzhou, 19 of them worked without a certificate or with false certificates.
Through in-depth analysis of major fire accidents in recent years, it has been found that illegal hot work operations are a very prominent problem. Many places have unqualified and unapproved operations, which is one of the important reasons for accidents. At this site, inspectors found that the management of hot work was lacking and chaotic: the gas cylinder did not take anti tipping measures, and there were leaks, wear, and aging of the hose.
During thermal cutting, propane and oxygen are usually used. Propane is a flammable substance, while oxygen is a combustion aid. If propane leaks and mixes with oxygen to a certain proportion, it will ignite and explode when encountering a fire source, posing great harm. So the country has very strict management of gas cylinders at electrical welding and hot work sites. Despite the risks around us, there are still employees smoking next to propane cylinders.
Weak safety awareness, lack of professional knowledge, and chaotic management have laid numerous hidden dangers for safety production. At the Kaiwen Heavy Industry site in Hefei, inspectors also found issues such as illegal hot work operations, unlicensed personnel on duty, and inadequate implementation of safety management responsibilities by the main responsible person. The joint law enforcement team immediately instructed the local regulatory authorities to take on-site measures against the enterprise, and strictly implemented "one case, two penalties" for the illegal and irregular behavior of the main responsible person, which means not only punishing the enterprise, but also punishing the responsible person of the enterprise.
While the joint law enforcement team was measuring the fire separation distance, workers were still conducting hot work in violation of regulations on site.
This security inspection also found that there are weak security links in outsourcing and renting by enterprises, and the problem of "factory in factory" is prominent. The lessor often lacks safety management over the lessee and leaves it to their own devices. The so-called "factory within the factory" refers to a company subletting its factory buildings to other companies for production and business activities. In the "factory in factory" process of subcontracting, safety management is often neglected in order to pursue economic benefits, resulting in greater risks with more subcontracting. At the scene of Hefei Kaiwen Heavy Industry mentioned earlier, the joint law enforcement team also discovered that the factory had leased part of its factory area to a door and window company for use. The two factories are tightly connected and lack the necessary safety distance. In the event of a fire, it is extremely easy to burn down the company.
It is not uncommon for enterprises to sign outsourcing and leasing security management agreements in accordance with regulations. This is Hangzhou Yalai Building Structure Co., Ltd. They have rented out their factories to multiple production and operation units.
Although the signed safety production management agreement stipulates that the lessee shall not sublet the leased subject matter to other units or individuals without authorization, one of the leasing enterprises, Hangzhou Qiye Machinery Co., Ltd., still sublets part of the leased factory to Hangzhou Chaogu Metal Products Co., Ltd. without authorization, forming a "factory in factory, factory in factory" situation.
The inspection also found that the main responsible person did not perform their duties properly in accordance with the law. The main responsible persons of some enterprises lack "red line awareness" and "bottom line thinking", and the problem is prominent. As a key minority of enterprises, the performance of the main responsible persons directly determines the level of safety management of each enterprise. The lack of management is one of the important causes of accidents.
In Jiangxi, a hidden danger investigation was conducted on Zhonghuan Construction Group Co., Ltd. It was found that although the company issued a Safety Rectification Notice during the investigation, the review records for the past two months were blank, and the investigation and treatment of accident hidden dangers were not truthfully recorded. In addition, emergency rescue drills were not organized in conjunction with the actual construction site.
In Jilin, the joint law enforcement team randomly inspected 10 enterprises and units in Changchun and found that the main responsible persons of 8 enterprises were aware of the special action, but none of the 10 enterprises were clear about the five key contents and did not organize learning on the criteria for determining major hazards in the industry.
It is understood that the 2023 action plan for identifying and rectifying major accident hazards has entered its second phase, which involves conducting comprehensive self inspection and self correction within one to two months. Then, based on this, regulatory authorities will carry out precise and strict law enforcement. For enterprises that still have major accident hazards or have accidents due to inadequate investigation and rectification, relevant regulatory authorities should take measures such as "one case, two penalties", industry bans, and referral to judicial authorities to strictly impose penalties and increase public exposure. Through responsibility reversal, enterprises will be forced to investigate and rectify without leaving any blind spots.
Work safety is a major concern for people's livelihoods, concerns the well-being of the people, and concerns the overall economic and social development. We cannot relax at all. Safety production is a long-lasting battle, and we must have a sense of responsibility that we can't rest assured of at all times. We must focus on the implementation of work, closely monitor potential hazards, comprehensively investigate risks, and ensure that every month is a safety production month and every day is a safety production day. From the situation of covert investigation and investigation, it can be seen that some units and enterprises still have weak safety awareness, a sense of luck, and inadequate hidden danger investigation. The repeated occurrence of accidents is a warning to us that safety production must always sound the alarm bell.
