China strengthens work on safe production of hazardous chemicals

China has issued guidelines on enhancing the safe production of hazardous chemicals to prevent major accidents and protect people's lives and property.

The document, which consists of six segments, underlines improvement and implementation of responsibilities and administrative systems for workplace safety, and the establishment of mechanisms for eliminating hidden risks in safety and related prevention and control measures, with the focus on preventing and defusing systemic safety risks.

It also stressed the need to boost the capabilities of applying high technologies including big data and AI for monitoring and tracking of production, storage, transportation and waste disposal of hazardous chemicals.

China posted a stable workplace safety record in the first 11 months of 2019, with fewer production-related accidents compared with the same period of the previous year, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

From January to November, the total number of major accidents in China, which refers to those that caused three to 10 deaths, dropped 10.4 percent year-on-year, said the ministry.