Miscellaneous News

Equation said:

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Man I hope this is not due to terrorists.

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Quickie said:

Remember Blackstone were warning about color (flour) powder being flamable. Some people have just no idea what they're doing when they are actually playing with fire.

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PanAsian said:

Yep, can be sparked by something as minor as static electricity.

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Shanghai – Anti Pollution protests against the construction of a new PX plant continue to grow in the Shanghai suburb of Jinshui. The protest that

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doubled in size Thursday night when approximately 5000 people filled the streets to re-affirm their opposition.

Along with the massive night time march, large groups of people have maintained a protest outside of the Jinshui District Government building since Monday.

PX (

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) is a flammable chemical used in polyester and plastics manufacturing and a major contributor to air pollution, especially the deadly particulate

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. Air pollution and especially

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are a hot button topic for Chinese people. Tiny pollutants, known as PM2.5, led to about 257,000 premature deaths across the mainland’s 31 municipalities and provincial capitals in 2013. In 12 of the 31 cities, including Shijiazhuang , Nanjing , Tianjin and Chongqing , the mortality rate due to pollution was even worse. In these cities, at least 100 out of every 100,000 deaths were blamed on PM2.5, a rate higher than the official mortality rate from smoking.


In April an

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at a chemical factory producing (paraxylene) PX in Zhangzhou, Fujian province, required the attention of the Chinese army’s anti-chemical warfare unit and the evacuation of 30,000 people.

Pollution and the construction of PX plants has sparked many

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, including

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that lasted 3 days last year in Maoming, Guangdong province.

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The number of party revelers injured in a fire at a Taiwan water park was put at 498 on Sunday as authorities began investigating the cause, suspected to be a sudden explosion of a colored powder thrown on those attending the party.

Six foreigners and seven visitors from Hong Kong, mainland China and Macau were among those injured after about 1,000 people dancing at Saturday's event were sprayed with the powder, as a special feature of a festival also held in previous years.

The figure released late Sunday by local authorities was lower than an earlier estimate of 519 injured due to patients being transferred between hospitals and being double-counted, a government official said.

The blaze, which broke out at around 8.30 p.m. at the Formosa Fun Coast water park on the outskirts of the capital, Taipei, is suspected to have been caused by an explosion of the colored powder, local government official Lin Chieh-yu told Reuters.

"It remains under investigation as to what made the powder explode," he said.

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People carry an injured victim from an accidental explosion during a music concert at the Formosa Wa …
Authorities have banned the use of the powder until the investigation is completed and its safety can be assured.

"The next few days will be a critical time for the injured," Taiwan Premier Mao Chi-kuo told reporters. All of the 498 injured were still being treated in 43 hospitals across the island, according to the latest figures provided by the New Taipei City government.

In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, rescuers treated hundreds of people, most of them aged between 20 and 30, who wore wet swimsuits and lay on inflatable plastic doughnuts.

A video posted online by Apple Daily showed dancers in front of the stage engulfed in clouds of colored powder a moment before a fireball erupted, followed by pockets of flame, triggering panic and screams.

"There was blood and people were on fire," one injured man said.

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Injured victims from an accidental explosion during a music concert lie on the ground at the Formosa …
No death has yet been reported, but victims suffered burns on limbs and torsos, with some passing out from the pain while others had burned clothes stuck to their skin, media reports and pictures showed.

"Her whole life is ruined," sobbed the father of Chu Li, an 18-year-old girl with burns on 80 percent of her body, during a visit by President Ma Ying-jeou to victims in a Taipei hospital.

Soldiers, army vehicles and medical services joined the rescue effort, while hospitals in four municipal precincts, along with Taipei, are treating sufferers.

The amusement park has been closed temporarily, it said on its website on Sunday.

Taipei has sweltered in temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent weeks.

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AssassinsMace said:

I wonder if they could actually charge negligence if this was just something like flour. Most people don't know that organic dust in the air like flour can ignite and explode in the right conditions. It's rare so people don't even think about it. And it's not hard to find some Asian smoking to ignite it.

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