Burnt China plant was model factory

[Ray]

Burnt China plant was model factory

EDWARD WONG

The damaged factory in the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Plant in Dehui, China.

Beijing, June 4: The company operating a poultry processing factory in northeast China where a fire and ammonia gas poisoning killed at least 120 people had been praised and supported by government officials as a model enterprise, raising questions of whether the officials had done thorough and aggressive inspections.

A leak of ammonia gas used for preservation of meat in cold storage might have led to the explosion yesterday, which resulted in what state news media called the worst workplace fire in many years. Any problem in ammonia storage or other workplace conditions did not appear to have been spotted or publicised by officials.

Homages to the company, Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry, appeared in postings over the last several years on the website of the government of Dehui, the municipality in northeast China's Jilin province where the factory is.

In October 2010, the head of the local anti-corruption body of the Communist Party visited the company to research workplace conditions, according to a statement from Dehui propaganda officials posted on the municipal website.

The official, Zhao Wenbo, found the company's "progress into becoming a nationally known enterprise and the growth of its production inspiring", the post said. For years, Dehui has been promoting itself as a centre of commercial agriculture, animal feed production and food processing.

A different post from the same year on the Dehui site asserted that "through an advanced management concept and business model, the company quickly entered into healthy development". It said the Jilin provincial government had called the company one of the "top 100 agricultural processing companies".

Those assessments suggested that officials had missed or ignored conditions that led to the disaster. People familiar with the factory were cited by Chinese state news media today as saying that safety measures were poor or non-existent. The death toll rivalled some of the more horrendous accidents in China's notoriously unsafe mining industry.

Burnt China plant was model factory

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It is lamented by the Chinese posters that Indians malevolently accuse Chinese of 'showcasing' events, monstrosities in concrete, engineering marvels and so on.

But that is not a fair complaint.

Take this 'model factory'.

in October 2010, the head of the local anti-corruption body of the Communist Party visited the company to research workplace conditions, and the official, Zhao Wenbo, touted the factory as "the company's "progress into becoming a nationally known enterprise and the growth of its production inspiring"

Then, on the Dehui site it asserted that "through an advanced management concept and business model, the company quickly entered into healthy development"

Just Imagine, the Jilin provincial government had called the company one of the "top 100 agricultural processing companies".

But now that it has burnt up owing to poor working and safety conditions, true to Chinese character there is the back-flip, smooth as a baby's cheek, with the Chinese state news media (mouthpiece of the CCP and the Chinese Govt) today saying that safety measures were poor or non-existent.

In other words, showcase while the going is good and if it fails have amnesia and blame all concerned!

 

[pmaitra]

I fail to understand why anyone would use Ammonia, a basic* gas, instead of using inert gases like Nitrogen to preserve meat?

* By basic, I mean as opposed to acidic.

I read in the local news today that the exits were locked and many people were trapped inside.

This is very unfortunate.

 

[Ray]

I fail to understand why anyone would use Ammonia, a basic* gas, instead of using inert gases like Nitrogen to preserve meat?

* By basic, I mean as opposed to acidic.

I read in the local news today that the exits were locked and many people were trapped inside.

This is very unfortunate.

Surprising that the exits are locked in a model factory with model workers under model working and safety condition and being a model of progress and efficiency in Chinese industry!

Ammonia is cheap!

Maybe Ammonium hydroxide and other ammonia-containing compounds were being used extensively in food processing.

 

[pmaitra]

Surprising that the exits are locked in a model factory with model workers under model working and safety condition and being a model of progress and efficiency in Chinese industry!

Ammonia is cheap!

It shows that the standards inside PRC are probably at the level of Bangladesh, and all the hoopla with high speed trains and nice looking cities is just a façade. No wonder they can export goods cheaper than India can. What a fine example of a workers' paradise in a so called "communist" country. <sarcasm>

Shameful!

 

[Ray]

It shows that the standards inside PRC are probably at the level of Bangladesh, and all the hoopla with high speed trains and nice looking cities is just a façade. No wonder they can export goods cheaper than India can. What a fine example of a workers' paradise in a so called "communist" country. <sarcasm>

Shameful!

Their standards are set on the basis of how much of money they can rake in and safety and ethics be damned.

Remember the milk and melamine and many other such horrid stuff they do with food products and other products like dangerous and toxic paint on toys and so on?

It is no longer a workers paradise. It is working on One Cat Two Mice theory.

This is the 'workers' Paradise' they have conjured for themselves

'Mass suicide' protest at Apple manufacturer Foxconn factory

Around 150 Chinese workers at Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacturer, threatened to commit suicide by leaping from their factory roof in protest at their working conditions.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...st-at-Apple-manufacturer-Foxconn-factory.html

 

[W.G.Ewald]

I fail to understand why anyone would use Ammonia, a basic* gas, instead of using inert gases like Nitrogen to preserve meat?

* By basic, I mean as opposed to acidic.

I read in the local news today that the exits were locked and many people were trapped inside.

This is very unfortunate.

Hamlet chicken processing plant fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Hamlet food processing plant fire was an industrial fire in Hamlet, North Carolina, at the Imperial Foods processing plant on September 3, 1991, due to a failure in a hydraulic line. Twenty-five were killed and 55 injured in the fire, trapped behind locked fire doors. In 11 years of operation, the plant had never received a safety inspection.[1] Investigators believe a safety inspection might have prevented the disaster.[2]

The Imperial Foods Plant was not a chicken-processing plant, but rather was a food-processing plant. These are terms defined by the U.S. Department of Labor. A chicken-processing plant kills and processes chickens by cutting them up and freezing them. A food-processing plant takes frozen meat, in this case chicken, and cooks it and then refreezes it. The Imperial Foods plant in Hamlet cooked the chicken meat and refroze it. The Imperial plant did not kill and process chickens - a subtle difference that confused the media, legislators and the public.[citation needed]

A federal investigation was launched, which resulted in the owners receiving a 20-year prison sentence. The company received the highest fine in the history of North Carolina.[3] As a result, the state passed several worker safety laws. Survivors and victims' families accused the fire service and city of Hamlet of racism, leading to two monuments to the tragedy being erected. The plant was never reopened.

The fire was North Carolina's worst industrial disaster.[4] Higher fatalities occurred at the 1947 Texas City disaster, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the 1860 Pemberton Mill collapse.[5] Some mining disasters have been worse: 53 miners died in 1925 in North Carolina in the Coal Glen mine disaster.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

I fail to understand why anyone would use Ammonia, a basic* gas, instead of using inert gases like Nitrogen to preserve meat?

* By basic, I mean as opposed to acidic..

Q: How does it work to kill pathogens in meat?

A: Many food pathogens, including dangerous forms of E. coli can be found in the intestines of cattle. They are able to survive and grow in the high acid tissues of animals. Ammonium hydroxide and other compounds can damage these organisms and lower the acidity of meats and other foods, making it difficult for these pathogens to survive.

Questions and Answers about Ammonium Hydroxide Use in Food Production

 

[sesha_maruthi27]

Their standards are set on the basis of how much of money they can rake in and safety and ethics be damned.

Remember the milk and melamine and many other such horrid stuff they do with food products and other products like dangerous and toxic paint on toys and so on?

It is no longer a workers paradise. It is working on One Cat Two Mice theory.

This is the 'workers' Paradise' they have conjured for themselves

DO they do the same thing in exports like JF-10 and other defences equipments that they offer to pakistan. Hell, if it so then pakistan will suffer a lot when they make use of these equipments and machines during a war. The machines may not withstand extreme conditions.........