New explosions and fire rocked the Chinese port city of Tianjin on Saturday, where one survivor was pulled out and authorities ordered evacuations within a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) radius to clean up chemical contamination.
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The government fears a change in wind direction means chemicals and debris from the blast is now being blown inland. Not just people but animals and other organisms would be exposed to certain chemicals..
We are concerned that certain chemicals will continue to pose a risk to the residents of Tianjin, Greenpeace Asias Beijing office said to TIME in an emailed statement.
“Depending upon the amount of sodium cyanide that is there, I would be concerned about the residues of sodium cyanide that may have been distributed across the area, and how that cleanup will be managed”, he says. NaCN in particular is highly toxic.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection on Saturday said that Chemical oxygen demand and cyanide have been detected in the underground pipelines of blocked discharge outlets in the area affected by the explosion, with the excessive discharge three to eight times higher than the standard. This will present a challenge for firefighting and, with rain forecast for tomorrow, is a major hazard..
More than 700 people were injured by the explosion and its immediate aftermath.
The official China Daily reported that the company running the warehouse, Ruihai Logistics, had proper approval for the business.
What appears to be video shot from a drone camera released Thursday morning showed the charred remains of hundreds of parked cars and several surrounding buildings, completely destroyed by the blasts. More than 720 people have been hospitalized so far with injuries.
“Out of consideration for toxic substances spreading, the masses nearby have been asked to evacuate”, Xinhua is quoted in The Guardian.
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Tianjin Fire Department head Zhou Tian said at a news conference Friday that the explosions occurred just as reinforcements had arrived on the scene and were getting to work.
