AFP/Reuters/Geneva

More transparency from Chinese authorities on the handling and storage of hazardous waste could have mitigated, or possibly even prevented, the disaster in Tianjin, a UN expert said yesterday.
Around 700 tonnes of highly toxic sodium cyanide were at the site devastated by major blasts last week, which killed at least 114 people, with fears rising that spreading pollution could cause further suffering.
“The lack of information when needed – information that could have mitigated or perhaps even prevented this disaster – is truly tragic,” said Baskut Tuncak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes.
“Moreover, the reported restrictions on public access to health and safety information and freedom of the press in the aftermath are deeply disturbing, particularly to the extent it risks increasing the number of victims of this disaster,” he added.
Tuncak called on the Communist government to show complete transparency in the investigation of the chemical disaster in the northern port city.
Clean-up efforts have been complicated by heavy rainfall on the remains of the industrial site, with anxiety in the area mounting over the extent of contamination.
Officials have insisted that the city’s air and water are safe, but locals have voiced scepticism.
Tuncak said that China needed to review whether its existing laws on hazardous waste met international standards, and underscored that all information about such material “must be available and accessible” to the public.
The warehouse owner, Ruihai International Logistics, had a licence to handle dangerous chemicals at the time of the blast, but questions have been raised about its credentials.
Chinese state media yesterday appeared to convict executives of Ruihai, saying that they used connections to obtain fire safety and environmental approvals.
“My connections are with police and fire. When we needed a fire inspection, I went to meet with officials at the Tianjin port fire squad,” Dong Shexuan, 34, deputy head of the company, told the official Xinhua state news agency while he and other executives were in police custody. “I gave them ... the files and soon they gave me the appraisal and took care of it.”
Company executives interviewed by Xinhua could not be reached for comment.
Chinese state media often airs confessions of those detained in high-profile criminal cases before they are tried in court, a practice that rule of law advocates say violates the rights of the accused to due process.
Xinhua said that Dong did not mention any instances of bribery.
China has struggled in recent years with accidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires, and President Xi Jinping has vowed that authorities should learn the lessons paid for with blood.
Apartment buildings and a railway station were closer to the warehouse than allowed by Chinese regulations dealing with the storage of dangerous materials, state media has reported.
Hundreds of people who lived near the blast site have demanded that the government arrange compensation or buy back their damaged or destroyed property.
Dong said company officials shopped around for approvals with different safety evaluation firms until they got the result they desired.
The first such firm said the warehouse was too close to apartment buildings, he said.
China said on Tuesday that it was investigating the head of its work safety regulator, who for years allowed companies to operate without a licence for dangerous chemicals.
The People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, said last week that Ruihai had operated without a licence to work with dangerous chemicals because of an administrative loophole, though Reuters could not verify that report.
Tianjin mayor Huang Xingguo told reporters at a briefing that all chemical companies would be required to relocate 25km (15 miles) from the port central Binhai district and that there would be “zero-tolerance” for violations.



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