The annual number of deaths caused by gas poisoning by urban and rural households in urban and rural areas in Guangdong Province even exceeded the number of people killed in the fire by showering with gas water heaters.
"Outlook" Newsweek reporters in Guangdong Province found that every year the number of urban and rural residents who use gas water heaters to take a bath and lead to gas poisoning death toll, even more than the number of fire deaths .According to the Guangdong authorities said the 'bathe dead' hardest hit list, Modern Metropolis Guangzhou, Shenzhen impressively in the column.
The installation of 'straight-on water heaters' in bathrooms and the 'chimney-type water heaters' that do not require pipe installation are the culprits for 'dead bath', both of which are found in large numbers in residential households.
The reporter interviewed found that gas water heaters from the production, sale, installation, use to manage all aspects of the existence of security risks, is the daily life of people's safety supervision 'blind spot'.
Respondents interviewed industry, the relevant departments should keep a 'responsibility field', strengthen legal punishment and social governance, the inclusion of gas poisoning on the local government's safety assessment system, to prevent unsafe gas water heater to increase, transform the stock , To avoid 'trivial drag big event drag'.
Water heater 'detoxification' fierce fire
January 5 this year, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou City, West Village Street, a self-built building, a migrant workers killed during gas poisoning.
The reporter saw at the scene of the incident, the bathroom area of less than two square meters, the wall hung a flue-type water heater is not installed exhaust pipe .Friends relatives and friends hurriedly finished the funeral left, the landlord far in foreign countries, The rental house affixed a seal of the seal, which is equivalent to no one responsible for the community police said the tenant in order to prevent wind and rat, the doors and windows are tightly closed, the whole house at an accident was airtight.
"Outlook" Newsweek Reporters from the authoritative department exclusive access to the data show that from 2012 to 2016, the province of Guangdong Province by the public security departments on-site survey of the use of gas water heaters caused by gas poisoning killed 1274 cases, 1,344 people were killed, the average The number of deaths per year is as high as 269, far higher than the number of deaths due to fires.
In 2016, there were 133 deaths from fire in Guangdong province. In the same year, there were 73 deaths from gas-fired gas water heaters in Guangzhou City, reaching 46 in Guangzhou City, 46 in Shenzhen City and 37 in Zhongshan City (4 deaths from Zhongshan Fire in the same period) The number of dead people in the three cities was 20% more than the total number of fire death tolls in the province.
'The actual number of people who died of poisoning due to the use of gas water heaters may be more than the number of people who have been poisoned.' Informed sources said: 'Because the vast majority of families will be hospitalized immediately after gas poisoning, if the rescue fails in the hospital and the family members have no objection to the cause of death, There will be no police investigation, so there will be no public security scene survey, will not be reflected in the above statistics. Poisoning injury, the number of disabled people even worse statistics.
Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission CDC introduced the hospital for the death of patients are registered in accordance with the provisions of the classification of collective poisoning according to the relevant provisions of the report, but the poisoning cases were not included in the statutory report.Therefore, household gas poisoning caused by casualties, the health system No standardized report statistics.
However, 'shower dead' is not unique to Guangdong. 'Water heater + poisoning + death' as the key word in the Chinese referendum online search found that over the past five years, a total of 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities had gas water heater caused poisoning during bathing poisoning Deaths, while the number of cases in most areas are more than 20 cases.
Among them, the poor exhaust conditions, the management of lax rental and small hotel is a 'bathe dead' hardest hit.Guangdong Jun thick law firm lawyer Zhang Jian said the families of the victims may choose to be the landlord and other responsible 'private' Some even though they took legal proceedings, but eventually chose to settle or mediation, compensation for the incident, and some victims of legal awareness and awareness of the weak rights, not responsible, do not understand the rights of workers, especially migrant workers in urban areas, Encountering such an accident is easier to blame, and makes a mistake.
Be alert to the risk of the four links
Who is the culprit 'bathing dead'? Reporter survey found that a number of clues directed at straight-type water heaters and did not follow the design requirements of the exhaust pipe flue-type water heater.
National Gas Appliances Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center (Foshan) Zhang Mingwei, director of the inspection department introduced in accordance with the exhaust gas emissions, gas water heaters can be divided into straight row, flue type, strong row type and balanced type 4. Which vertical type water heater Exhaust gas is discharged directly at the installation site, and the other three are vented outdoors by installing exhaust ducts.
The end of the last century, the former State Bureau of Light Industry and the Bureau of Foreign Trade issued a ban on the production and sale of vertical water heater notice, but this notice is not legally enforceable.
Our correspondents visited a number of large home appliance stores in Guangdong, urban and rural areas with shops and well-known electricity suppliers, did not find direct sales of water heaters, but a large number of families in the past the acquisition of the continued use of .Pinghu Street, Shenzhen recently through the financial subsidies Way, for the residents of the family demolished nearly 4,000 in-line water heaters.
Zhang Mingwei said that at present the most serious safety hazard is the flue-type water heater, if you do not install the exhaust pipe, the flue with the in-line exhaust emissions are the same way, but the country neither the exhaust pipe and the water heater packing Factory sales, but no mandatory mandatory installation.
The survey by Newsweek News reporters found that users sewed windows and doors tightly to prevent cold even though it was one of the causes of the accidental "bathe dead". However, the fatal risk lay in the production, sale, installation, management, etc. The link has long been buried.
A risk point, the lack of safe production of some gas water heater security.
According to the information provided by the Bureau of Quality Supervision, Guangdong Province, although the gas appliance is a special type of equipment and the production license management system is adopted, the threshold for the production of domestic gas water heaters is very low. Some small and micro enterprises and small workshops have some permits to cut corners, Of the 'hanging head and sell the dog meat', there are agents to small and micro businesses ordering 'white version of the machine', OEM sales.
Risk points Second, the sales of flue-type water heater is still a lack of hard norms, to ensure that the safety of the exhaust pipe 'can sell can not be sold.'
Flue gas water heaters only sell a minimum of more than 300 yuan a, a wide range of physical stores and electricity suppliers. An online shopping mall 'Shunde kitchen appliances wholesalers' stores selling well-known brand 'MACRO' flue-type water heater, 388 yuan a, Not included in the installation, nor distribution, does not sell exhaust pipe, consumers need to solve their own.
Shantou City Jinping Jinsha Township, an appliance wholesale shop owners unannounced visits to correspondents, said: 'The cheapest flue-type water heaters, two hundred dollars a, do not install the pipeline so much trouble, no accident.'
However, judgments in many jurisdictions indicate that water heater sellers have to bear legal responsibility for such overconfident negligence.Since the Cangxi County People's Court of Sichuan released a case of two people being killed without a smoke exhaust pipe released this year, water heater sellers Family members of the deceased were sued in court, because they did not supervise the perforation to arrange the flue, did not fulfill the corresponding obligations were sentenced to assume 30% of the responsibility, compensation 156,000 yuan.
Risk points Three, water heater installers easily overlook the security risks, and even some who are not qualified are among them.
'When installing a water heater, it is not uncommon to not pay attention to safety of exhaust gas and cause death after use by others.' Du Xiaojun, an associate professor at the Law School of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, said that in the production and operation, a major accident occurred in violation of relevant safety management regulations and its behavior May constitute a serious liability accident.
Xiamen City, Fujian Province Siming District People's Court a judicial document shows that Xiamen Constable Trading Company legal representative Sumou, knowing that the company does not have the gas burner installation, maintenance qualification, but from 2009 onwards to undertake the installation of gas water heater , Maintenance and other after-sales business, but also hired did not get the installation of gas appliances installed Zhongmou for the installation and maintenance of workers.They installed a water heater in a few years lead to the death of a bath time, Sumou and Zhongmou was guilty of major crimes Liability accident.
Risk points Fourth, as a "shower dead" multiple hair spots, some rental and small hotel operators easy to ignore safety management.
Although the brand water heater product packaging are generally marked with "outdoor installation" and other warnings, but some of the safety awareness of the operator is easy to overlook.
In the online search of referee documents found that due to 'take a shower dead' is responsible for most of the responsibility of rental and small hotel managers such as Changde City, Hunan Province Wuling District Court of Justice a verdict shows that Lee Moumou, Liu Moumou couple Rented the rented Changde City Railway Station Jinhui Square facade as a private guest house, and Liao Moumou and his children died at the hotel in 2013 due to improper installation of the gas water heater and poor ventilation in the room. Li Moumou, Liu Moumou constituted a serious crime of responsibility, and the circumstances are particularly poor, sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years.
Keep a good safety management 'responsibility field'
Newsweek interviewed reporters found that in the relatively standardized safety management of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhongshan City, 'bathing dead' has become a high incidence of accidents because of this accident sporadic distribution in ordinary households difficult to cause Social concern; on the other hand, because there is still a lack of corresponding laws and regulations accountable 'take a shower dead', because 'bathing dead' is not included in the local government safety inspection system, the norms of its statistics of casualties, regulatory difficulties.
Interview with reporters found that quality supervision, safety supervision, public security, health and other departments on the 'bathing dead' accident is still not enough attention, and there is a tendency of 'drum sticks and flowers': Some departments pointed out that other departments need to cooperate before they can make a difference; Some say that they can not be implemented, and the state should first set up compulsory standards and establish relevant laws in a responsible manner. Some say that other departments should take 'bathing dead' as the only way to enforce the law in order to produce safety accidents ...
In this regard, the respondents are concerned: all over the country, especially in the cold developed areas of less developed small towns and townships, with the improvement of economic level, family living environment improvement, a substantial reduction in the number of bathing in public baths, gas water heaters into the family a large number of Its quality and safety and installation safety without remediation, 'shower dead' risk can not be underestimated.
Experts interviewed said that the relevant departments should pay attention to the current safety risks exposed in the production, sale, installation, management and use of gas water heaters. They should actively take the attitude of "keeping their own shoulders their responsibility" and avoid safety problems so as to reduce tragedies.
In the national management level, it is proposed to impose mandatory standards on household gas water heaters and prohibit the production and sales of direct gas water heaters by tougher legal measures. The quality supervision and market supervision departments shall step up efforts to investigate and rectify the manufacturers and operators that have manufactured and sold unqualified gas water heaters Business, focusing on increasing the inspections of urban villages, small shops and other places, the rectification measures implemented in place of businesses and individuals, through the 'two convergence' platform to transfer the clues so that prosecutors pursue their legal responsibilities.
In industry management, it is recommended to supervise the implementation of gas water heater installation specifications, clarify the responsibility of the bottled liquefied gas distribution unit of gas safety, requiring education, urging consumers to eliminate the hidden dangers of water heater.
In the area of grassroots governance, it is proposed to rectify the hidden danger of gas water heater and to integrate the efforts of village and village safety guards, grid staff, family planning staff and security guards, with a focus on the investigation of gas water heaters in rental houses, small hotels and other places, from house to house At the same time through the replacement of subsidies, set the snatch and film auction period to urge owners and operators to eliminate hidden dangers, the installation is still not justified after the expiration of gas water heaters to be demolished.
In the field of judicial protection of human rights, it is suggested to strengthen publicity and education on the rule of law for consumers of water heaters and to promptly report to the police and report after causing serious casualties caused by domestic gas-fired water heaters. At the same time, the public security organ should be urged to file a case investigation on cases of death or serious accidents involving negligence, Strength to play a greater deterrent.