Minute traces of cyanide have been detected in water samples collected near the Tianjin port, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said.
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Sodium cyanide is soluble in water, and absorbs water from air, and its dust is also easy to inhale.
Angry relatives of the missing firefighters stormed a government news conference Saturday to demand any information on their loved ones.
Hhydrogen cyanide gas is a highly toxic chemical that interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen, according tot he U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which describes it as “rapidly fatal”. A unsafe gas called hydrogen cyanide is released once the chemical is dissolved in water or subjected to fire. “These levels are actually very low”, he said. The chemicals were scattered mostly within a 100,000-square-meter core area.
Sodium cyanide, used in steel production and mining, is toxic by itself or in solution.
Deformed containers pile up at the site of an explosion at a warehouse in northeastern China’s Tianjin municipality, Friday, August 14, 2015. China sent a team of nuclear and biochemical emergency military workers to the area east of Beijing to search for survivors, the Ministry of National Defense said.
The death toll from the disaster rose to 114 on Monday, with 70 still missing, majority “contract firefighters”.
Smoke was still rising from the site on Monday afternoon. Who would want to live next to a ticking time bomb? (English, 1094) “Now our homes have been destroyed”.
“We believe that the investigation team can determine the cause of the accident, in short order determine and firmly punish violations of law, and in this way… give victims and the people a full explanation”, Mr He said.
“We haven’t been back home since the explosions”, Zhang said.
The government has sought to limit criticism of the handling of the disaster.
Premier Li Keqiang told Tianjin residents and firefighters on Sunday, August 16, that all families of firefighters who died in the Tianjin blasts will be given equal treatment as well as compensation and honor regardless of whether they were in active service or employed by enterprises, the Global Times reported.
Prosecutors have been ordered to investigate possible dereliction of duty and abuse of power that may have contributed to Wednesday night’s blasts. Five days after the blast, no official explanation has been offered.
“Tianjin is not an exceptional case in terms of the inadequate disaster response work”, added the newspaper, which is controlled by Beijing.
The comments may indicate that individuals could be held responsible for the disaster, and that central authorities are looking to portray it as an aberration rather than a systemic failure.
Chinese media that have reported different versions of events have been accused of spreading “rumours” that “manufacture panic … resulting in adverse social panic” by the Cyberspace Adminstration, which says, after a shove through some online translate-o-tronic machinery, that 32 web sites have been shut down for a month for their sins.
Shi told reporters that workers are trying to clear all sodium cyanide from two separate sites at the port before the rain hits.
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The China Daily warned that a lack of concrete information about the situation in Tianjin had spawned multiple conspiracy theories.
