Hundreds of tonnes of dangerous chemicals found at Tan Tao Industrial Park

HCM City authorities have detected hundreds of tonnes of toxic chemicals stored incorrectly at Tan Tao Industrial Park's warehouse and pose high fire risks.

HCM City authorities have detected hundreds of tonnes of toxic chemicals stored incorrectly at Tan Tao Industrial Park's warehouse and pose high fire risks.

   

A fire occurred at Tan Tao Industrial Park in August 2020.

On December 8, HCM City Department of Industry and Trade reported that 365 tonnes of toxic chemicals including 60 tonnes of precursor chemicals used to produce industrial explosives have been found at a warehouse at Tan Tao Industrial Park.

The local authorities and the Management Board of HCM City Industrial Parks and Processing Zones and the local police carried out an inspection at the Dai Viet Chemical Equipment Production and Trading Company. The chemicals were found at their warehouse which covers 2,200 square metres. 119 tonnes of the chemical actually belong to Tan Viet Trung Chemical Company.

The warehouse contained mostly inflammable chemicals and toxic chemicals like sodium dichromate and potassium dichromate. There were also precursor chemicals used to produce industrial explosives like sodium nitrate and potassium chlorate.

The warehouse had no signs or information about the danger of the chemicals. There is no sewage treatment in the warehouse. The chemicals were not classified and arranged in accordance with regulations. The warehouse owner also didn't have any chemical incident prevention plans.

The inspectors have suspended the warehouse until the owner can obtain the required permits and certificates.

HCM City Industry and Trade and HCM City Police Department will deal with the violating companies. All toxic chemicals must be moved to a safer location.