China: New fires flare up at site of blasts

Authorities warned that cyanide levels in the waters around the Tianjin Port explosion site have risen to as much as 356 times acceptable levels although they declared that the city’s drinking water is safe.

The death toll rose to 116 from the huge explosions at a chemical warehouse in China last week, with 60 people still missing, reports said on Friday.

He explained that the large amount of dead fish was normal during hot summers when run-off pollution from the the land may flow into the river and sea after rainfall, which may cause eutrophication and suffocate the fish.

The explosion occurred at a factory of Shandong’s Runxing Chemical company which is a subsidiary of Runxing Group and has 200 million yuan ($31 million) in registered capital, Xinhua reported.

Previously, Chinese officials said that test had shown cyanide at only 28 times the allowed limit.

City officials have said they did not find unsafe levels of sodium cyanide in the river, and the fish died from an oxygen deficiency, not from poisoning.

In the areas outside the core zone, some stations monitoring water quality have detected the toxic chemical, but it has been within the national standard, said Deng of the Tianjin environmental authority.

Piles of dead fish have washed up on the shores of a lake in Tianjin today, about four miles from the site of the blasts that ripped through a hazardous goods warehouse last week.

Despite the highest density exceeding permitted standard once, the SOA noted that volatile phenol is unlikely to affect nearby waters, but stressed that cyanide remained the most severe threat to the maritime environment, capable of killing large numbers of fish and other marine life. He said there might be others reasons why so many fish are dying.

China’s Cabinet, the State Council, said an investigation team headed by Executive Vice Minister of Public Security Yang Huanning has launched a probe into the explosion.

Beijing also suspended operations at firms that make or deal in highly toxic chemicals and explosives from August 17 to September 6 in preparation for a military parade and athletics event, Xinhua said.

Suspicions that official corruption contributed to the disaster were underlined in revelations Wednesday in a Xinhua article that the two silent owners used their connections with police, fire, port and workplace safety officials to secure approval for their company, Ruihai global Logistics, to operate warehouses for hazardous materials.