Yunku Industrial Safety

In the afternoon of October 2020, a nitrogen asphyxiation accident occurred in a coal chemical enterprise during the commissioning stage of trial production. At the time of the incident, there was a sudden abnormality in the sewage treatment tank of the coal tar pretreatment unit, and the employee on duty entered the tank for inspection from the maintenance port in violation of the law without gas detection, application for a confined space operation permit, or wearing protective equipment, and then fell unconscious due to asphyxiation and oxygen deprivation. The subsequent three colleagues wearing respirators to implement rescue, but due to improper operation of the successive distress, ultimately leading to three deaths, one person was injured in the serious consequences.

Accidents Expose Core Problems:

Failure of safety management

The company failed to implement the operation approval system, and employees ignored the iron rule of “test first, enter later”, exposing the status quo of safety training as a mere formality and the grassroots' ignorance of risk.

Improper emergency rescue

Although the rescuers were equipped with professional respirators, they did not master the technical specifications for confined space rescue and misjudged the risk level of the scene, leading to the expansion of casualties.

Lack of monitoring and protection

The real-time gas monitoring system was not activated before the operation, and the nitrogen concentration in the tank was not detected in time, resulting in a total failure of the intrinsic safety defense.