Contamination fears and destruction spark

Residents whose homes were damaged in the explosions held another demonstration outside the venue of a press conference briefing journalists on the relief effort.

Experts have expressed concern that rain could spread some of the vast quantities of hazardous material at the site or set off chemical reactions sparking further explosions.

Officials didn’t address the issue directly at the news conference Friday morning.

In the past five days, Toyota shares have fallen 2.3% in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, in comparison to the Nikkei 225 Index, which has fallen less than 1%. Sirens wailed and vehicle and boat horns blared while assembled groups bowed in respect for the dead.

At the Tianjin development zone fire station, hundreds of firefighters bowed to 29 photos of the firemen who died in the flames.

Families of firefighters also have begun protesting on social media the government’s lack of transparency and said authorities in Tianjin are not updating them on their relatives’ status.

Pope Francis on Sunday remembered those hit by the Tianjin disaster‎, and assured his prayers for the ‎dead and those hit by the tragedy, imploring comfort for them and support ‎for those engaged in ‎relief ‎work. That has prompted contamination fears and a major cleanup of a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) -radius, cordoned-off area in the port city southeast of Beijing.

Fung Ying-sing, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s department of chemistry, said the samples indicate that bodies of water in the area have been heavily polluted with cyanide. The blasts devastated a large industrial site and nearby residences and sent shockwaves across several kilometers. “Up until now they have not acknowledged us”, said Li Jiao, whose home was close to the blast site.

The directive from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology lamented the frequency of fatal workplace accidents and demanded a thorough inspection of all safety risks.

If you have not yet heard, there was a massive warehouse explosion in Tianjin, China.

As for the other chemicals that were reportedly present in the warehouse, Read continued that “toluene diisocyanate irritates eyes and airways and can cause asthma and fluid in the lungs (pulmonary oedema)”.

The development points to the company’s influence, sources were quoted as saying.

Hazardous chemical warehouses must be at least 1,000m away from public buildings, highways, railways and industrial enterprises, Chinese regulations state.

The mainland’s iNewsweek reported that Dong Shexuan, son of former Tianjin municipal security bureau chief Dong Peijun, is a shareholder of Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai worldwide Logistics, the company responsible for the warehouse that exploded.

Hundreds of people who lived near the blast site have demanded that the government arrange compensation or buy back their apartments.

There is outrage from the surrounding neighborhood residents, demanding the Tianjin government provide answers to why the warehouse even existed.