Advertisement
23 Chinese metal workers sickened by carbon monoxide in power blackout
- Power cuts across northeastern China add pressure to the region’s basic infrastructure
- Jilin city water supplier announces – and then deletes – statement that water outages will be ‘normal occurrences’ until March
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
3
About two dozen employees of a metalwork company in northeastern China were taken to hospital after a sudden power outage in a factory led to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Advertisement
The failure comes as the country’s northeast grapples with a series of power shortages brought on by high coal prices and a surge in demand.
On Friday, authorities in Liaoyang, a prefecture-level city in Liaoning province, suddenly cut the electricity supply of a factory operated by Liaoning Penghui Zhuye, a steelmaking and metal casting firm, according to local media reports.
This shut down the exhaust system of the factory’s two blast furnaces, resulting in 23 people inhaling carbon monoxide. All the affected workers are still being treated in hospital on Monday, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.
An employee at Penghui Zhuye’s marketing department declined to comment and phone calls to the company’s general office went unanswered.
Power cuts all over northeastern China have put pressure on the region’s basic infrastructure.
Advertisement