TME21403

INDUSTRIAL SAFETY AND ORGANIZATION

why regulations
are mandatory:
Tianjin explosions
Presented by:
Mu’azzif
Adam Firdaus
Khairul Anwar
 OVERVIEW

01 02 03
INTRODUCTI COMPANY
ON OBJECTIVES INVOLVED
 OVERVIEW

04 05
BREACHED
SAFETY
06
SAFETY
REGULATIONS REGULATION AFTERMATH
S
 OVERVIEW

07 08
WHAT IF 09
CRIME REGULATIONS
INVESTIGATION WERE conclusion
FOLLOWED
 01
INTRODUC
TION
TIANJIN
EXPLOSIONS
On 12th August 2015, a devastating
series of explosions occurred in
Tianjin, China.

It was the cause of hundredths of

deaths and injuries in the populated
city

Involving the detonation of about 800

tonnes of ammonium nitrate
equivalent to 336 tons of TNT.
TIANJIN EXPLOSION
TIANJIN
EXPLOSIONS
Safety regulations are mandatory
requirements with aim to prevent or
reduce injuries.

Included in them are laws and

regulations as well as mandatory
standards

Tianjin explosions was caused by the

violations of some of those
regulations.
 02
OBJECTIV
ES
 objectives

The objectives for this case

study:
● To study the importance of health and
safety regulations in efforts to provide
security to workers and the surrounding
● To investigate the cause and breach in
safety regulations which caused the
incident
● To know which health and safety
regulations are important in avoiding this
kind of incident.
 03
THE
COMPANY
INVOLVED
 THE COMPANY
INVOLVED
It had a 46,000sqm or 500,000sq ft area site that
contained multiple warehouses for hazardous
goods, a fire pump, and a fire pond.

Its license for operation was renewed a couple of

months before the explosions.
 THE COMPANY
INVOLVED
Called Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai
International Logistics or Ruihai Logistics.

A privately held logistics company established in

2011 with 70 employees.

Approved and designated by the Tianjin

Maritime Safety Administration to handle
various hazardous chemicals that were
flammable, corrosive, oxidising agents and
toxic.
 04
SAFETY
REGULATI
ONS
Based on the safety regulations of the
Malaysian Department of
Occupational Safety & Health
(DOSH)
These are the regulations that is related
and can be applied regarding to this
incident
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH (USE AND
STANDARD OF EXPOSURE TO CHEMICAL
HAZARDOUS TO HEALTH) REGULATIONS 2000
1. 2. 3.
Identifying chemical Complying with the Carrying out
hazardous to health permissible chemical health risk
exposure limits assessments

4. 5. 6.
Taking action to Labelling and Providing
control hazardous relabelling chemical information,
exposures hazardous to health instruction and
training
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH (USE AND
STANDARD OF EXPOSURE TO CHEMICAL
HAZARDOUS TO HEALTH) REGULATIONS 2000
7. 8.
Monitoring Conducting health
employee exposure surveillance
at the place of work

9. 10.
Posting warning Record keeping
signs
IDENTIFICATION OF CHEMICAL
HAZARDOUS TO HEALTH

All chemicals used at the place of work shall

be identified and recorded in a register and
shall be accessible to the officer of the
Department of Occupational Safety and
Health
IDENTIFICATION OF CHEMICAL HAZARDOUS TO
HEALTH
The register shall contain
1. A list of all chemicals used
2. A current SDS for each chemicals
3. Average quantity used, produced or
stored per month or per year for each
chemical
4. The process and work area where the
chemical is used; and
5. Name and address of supplier for each
chemical.
PERMISSIBLE EXPOSURE LIMIT

The employer shall ensure that no person is exposed to any

chemical hazardous to health above:

A B
The ceiling limit at any The eight- hour time-weighted
time; or average airborne concentration
as specified in Schedule I of the
USECHH Regulations 2000.
 PERMISSIBLE EXPOSURE LIMIT

the employer shall provide information, instruction and training

to all employees who may be exposed or are likely to be
exposed to chemicals hazardous to health.

From the information, instruction and training given, the employee

should be able to know:

1 2
The risk to health The precaution that should be
created by such exposure taken
 WARNING SIGN
When a chemical hazardous to health is used in any manner
that is affecting the health of any person who may be in that
area or is likely to be at risk by the chemical hazardous to
health,

the employer shall ensure that:

1 2
Warning signs are posted Other relevant information are
at conspicuous locations given to person who may be or
at every entrance of the likely to be at risk of being
area to warns the person affected by the chemical
entering the area hazardous to health.
 PENALTY
Any person who contravenes any provision of this
Regulations shall be guilty of an offence and upon
conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding RM 10,000
or imprisonment of maximum one year.
 04
Breached safety
regulations
BREACHED
safety
REGULATION
S
Illegal storage of ammonium nitrate at
harbor.

Severe overcapacity of throughput and

excessive storage volumes

Embarking on illegal unpacking,

transportation, loading and unloading
and other operations

Failure of registration and filling of

major hazardous sources as required
 Breached safety regulations

Some of the major updates include:

 Non-combustible materials shall be used
to construct ammonium nitrate
warehouses.
 It is also widely used as an explosive in
the mining industry and is stored in large
quantities
 An automatic fire sprinkler system shall
be provided in accordance with NFPA 13
for a minimum extra hazard (group 1).
Only water-based suppression systems
shall be permitted.
 Breached safety regulations

Some of the major updates include:

 A fire alarm system activated
automatically by fire detection system
shall be setup.
 If an incipient fire cannot be put out,
emergency evacuation of people,
including firefighters, within one-mile
(1.6 km) of the fire shall be organized
immediately
6. Aftermath of the explosions
Aftermath of the explosions

Initial explosion with an amount of

energy equal to the detonation of 2.9
tonnes of explosive trinitrotoluene
(TNT) or almost 12GJ of energy.

Generated a seismic shock-waves

around the area which was reported as
an earthquake of magnitude 2.3 on
Richter magnitude scale.
Aftermath of the explosions

Followed with the next explosion even

more powerful blast which was reported
to cause seismic shock-waves of 2.9
magnitude with energy.

Claimed a lot of casualties and caused a

lot of damages to its surrounding within
a 3km radius of the incident
AFTER THE EXPLOSIONS AS REPORTED:
people
NON-FATAL
DEATHS MISSING
INJURIES

173
REPORTED
(Including missing 798 8
AMOUNT
presumed dead)
AFTER THE EXPLOSIONS AS REPORTED:
damages Intermodal
buildings cars
containers

304 major
damages
(structurally
unsafe)
REPORTED
12,428 7,533
AMOUNT 17,000 minor
damages
(shattered glass,
roof loss, etc.)
TIANJIN EXPLOSION
BESIDES
CLAIMING
LIVES
The effect can still be seen as
pollutions filled the air and water
sources

Caused by 700 tonnes of sodium

cyanide that contaminated the sewer
while the air is saturated with:

carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides,

sulphur dioxide
 BESIDES CLAIMING LIVES
Rescue efforts
The rescue efforts to find and save the victims of the disaster kept on going
for more than two weeks in addition to more than 200 nuclear and
biochemical experts that were brought to assess the situation in Tianjin.

Rashes and irritation

Although the government have downplayed the danger of the incident, some
citizens complained that they experienced rashes and irritation on the skin
after being exposed to rain.
 07
Crime
Investigation
 Crime
investigation
Ruihai International Logistics was not following the
regulations but still got away with it, not until the
explosions happened.

This has raised some questions on how strict does the

local government enforced the law and safety
regulations.
 WHO WAS CHARGED?
Yang Dongliang Yue Xuewei
Director of State Work Safety Administration Chairman of Ruihai Logistics
and the highest work-safety official in China
 08
WHAT IF
THEY
FOLLOWE
D
REGULATI
ONS?
WHAT IF THEY FOLLOWED REGULATIONS?
EFFECTIVE RESPONSE FROM
FIREFIGHTERS
- the initial fire occurrence within the warehouse were of manageable
magnitude

- the warehouse stored dangerous and toxic chemicals, mainly ammonium

nitrate, potassium nitrate and calcium carbide

- the warehouse stored dangerous and toxic chemicals, mainly ammonium

nitrate, potassium nitrate and calcium carbide
WHAT IF THEY FOLLOWED REGULATIONS?
Less casualties from the
surroundings
- According to local health and
safety regulations, it requires
“large- and medium-sized
hazardous chemical storage
facilities” to be kept at a
distance of 1,000 meters from
public buildings,
infrastructures and industrial
companies.

- the nearest residential

buildings were only 800
meters away from the
warehouse
 09
CONCLUSI
ON
 TO
CONCLUDE
The Tianjin Explosion incident has proved that even
with a well made regulations by Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) and local agencies,
even a bit of corruption among government officials
could lead to a catastrophic disaster.

In order to prevent this disaster from occurring in the

future, the government should be responsible and
administer strict laws while also monitoring the
effectiveness of it. This incident that claimed a lot of
lives could have been prevented if only the officials
were not blinded by greed.
Thanks
!
Any questions?