Proper probe into blast can raise plant safety

The damage caused by the explosion in a chemical plant producing paraxylene on Monday will not be to just the plant's productivity and the local environment. It will also increase people's aversion to such projects.

This is the second explosion at the plant in Zhangzhou, East China's Fujian province, since it opened in 2009. The first in 2013 was caused by a crack in a hydrogen pipe because of a welding defect. And investigators suspect the cause of Monday's blast was an oil leak in one of the facilities.

The fact that the increasing pollution in many of China's waterways, including major ones such as the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers, has a lot to do with the discharge of pollutants and wastes from chemical plants has made Chinese people distrustful of chemical projects.