'Fatal Accident' Lowers Safety Rating of Seosan Plant to the Lowest Level
[Asia Economy Reporter Park Soyeon] The Ministry of Employment and Labor has decided to downgrade LG Chem's Process Safety Management (PSM) rating and place it under special supervision.
According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the petrochemical industry on the 20th, the safety rating of LG Chem's Seosan plant, where a fatal accident occurred the previous day, has been lowered to the lowest grade, M-.
Under the current Process Safety Management system of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, any facility where a major industrial accident occurs is immediately downgraded to an M- rating. LG Chem experienced a fire in the catalyst packaging room at the Catalyst Center in Daesan Industrial Complex the day before, resulting in one researcher dead and two workers injured.
The Ministry manages the safety of petrochemical plants through the Process Safety Management system by dividing safety into 12 categories including equipment management, operational inspection, and safety management. Ratings are classified and managed as P (Excellent), S (Good), M+ (Average), and M- (Poor).
Facilities rated M+ or below are considered to have lax equipment and personnel management, posing a risk of major accidents, and are subject to special supervision. They must undergo safety inspections twice a year and receive technical support from the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency. Additionally, in the event of a major accident involving casualties, the responsible parties are subject to arrest and investigation as a principle.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor plans to respond strictly, considering that this accident occurred just over ten days after a gas leak accident at LG Chem's plant in India and two months after an explosion at the nearby Lotte Chemical plant that injured 36 people. Accordingly, the Ministry will conduct a special inspection related to the accident investigation at LG Chem's Daesan Industrial Complex within this month and then expand the inspection scope to all industrial facilities.
Ham Byeong-ho, head of the Chemical Accident Prevention Division at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, said, "Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), on-site inspections at workplaces have not been conducted for the past three months, which has led to lax safety management at each workplace. Although the resumption of safety management supervision was postponed due to the recent resurgence of COVID-19 originating from Itaewon, we have determined that it should not be delayed any longer and plan to resume it within this month."
The Ministry also stated that it is closely monitoring LG Chem's handling of the accident in India and the transfer of the causative material. LG Chem is currently transporting 13,000 tons of styrene, identified as the cause of the gas leak accident in India, to Korea by ship. The Ministry has confirmed that 8,000 tons of styrene stock will arrive on the 26th of this month, and the ship carrying the remaining 5,000 tons is scheduled to dock on the 1st of next month. To prepare for this, the Ministry and related agencies visited LG Chem's SM plant in the Yeosu Industrial Complex, where the material will be stored, to conduct a preliminary inspection of the storage facilities.
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