Recently, the latest punishment results regarding the unexpected safety production accident in the cosmetics industry that occurred on August 23rd last year in Yuyao City, Zhejiang Province have been announced.
According to the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, Ningbo Yufei Cosmetic Packaging Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Yufei Company”) has been fined 1.35 million yuan for violating relevant provisions of the People’s Republic of China’s Safety Production Law. It is reported that on August 23rd last year, a major collapse accident occurred at the construction site of the company’s expansion project, resulting in 5 deaths and 7 injuries.
It is understood that not only the involved company has been fined, but also the construction units and individuals related to the accident have been held accountable. This “bloody” lesson once again sounds the alarm for the industry’s safety production.
Fine of 1.35 million yuan, relevant responsible persons released on bail pending trial
Reviewing the incident, on August 23rd, 2023, at around 8:31 AM, the Yufei Company’s steel shed collapsed in Yuyao City, Zhejiang Province. At that time, an informant revealed to the media that the concrete had been poured into the shed the previous day. On the day of the accident, a collapse occurred while workers were pouring concrete on the second floor, with two workers inside the steel shed. By 9:48 PM on the day of the accident, the incident had resulted in 2 deaths, 3 critically injured, and 7 slightly injured.
This accident attracted wide attention not only from the entire industry but also from society as a whole. Nearly six months later, the Yuyao City Emergency Management Bureau in Zhejiang Province imposed administrative penalties on Yufei Company, the responsible party for the accident, and disclosed the specific cause of the accident and the final death and injury toll.
According to the disclosure of administrative penalty information, at around 8:28 AM on August 23rd, 2023, a major collapse accident occurred at the construction site of Yufei Company’s expansion project located at No. 7 Changzhen Road, Sibei Village, Simen Town, Yuyao City, Zhejiang Province. The accident resulted in 5 deaths and 7 injuries, with a direct economic loss of approximately 7.288 million yuan.
According to the investigation report of the accident titled “Investigation Report on the Major Collapse Accident of Yuyao Ningbo Yufei Company’s Expansion Project on ‘8.23’” released by the accident investigation team of the Ningbo Municipal People’s Government, “This accident was a major production safety liability accident caused by the illegal construction of the construction unit, which entrusted an unqualified individual construction team to carry out construction operations in violation of laws, regulations, and technical standards without standardized survey and design.”
According to the investigation team’s findings, the direct cause of the accident was as follows: Yufei Company’s illegal and irregular construction of Building 6, which was not surveyed or designed according to regulations, resulted in poor connection between the steel columns and beams without column support, poor lateral stiffness, severe over-limit stability and stress in the weak axis direction of the structural system, and severe inadequacy of anchor bolt anchorage length at the column base. The quality of steel structure welding was also poor. The steel columns became unstable along the weak axis direction, and under the continuous action of gravity loads, deformation continued to increase, ultimately leading to the overall collapse of Building 6 from east to west.
The specific reasons were as follows: After Yufei Company obtained the construction project planning permit on July 19th, 2023, it failed to apply for the construction engineering construction permit to the competent construction authority as required. During construction, it did not follow the provisions of the construction project planning permit. It did not entrust qualified units with the corresponding qualification level to carry out survey and design, nor did it subcontract the construction project to units with the corresponding qualification level. Instead, it entrusted unqualified individual construction teams (Wu Moufeng, Wang Mouqiang) to carry out the construction. The investigation report stated that the company deliberately evaded supervision and provided false information when inspected by the grid members of Simen Town, falsely claiming that “the approval procedures were complete and it was a legal and compliant construction.”
Finally, the Yuyao City Emergency Management Bureau determined that Yufei Company violated Article 49, Paragraph 1 of the People’s Republic of China’s Safety Production Law, which states that “production and business units shall not subcontract or lease production and business projects, places, or equipment to units or individuals who do not have safety production conditions or corresponding qualifications.” Therefore, based on Article 114, Item (2) of the Safety Production Law, the bureau imposed an administrative fine of 1.35 million yuan on Yufei Company.
It is worth noting that in addition to Yufei Company, the construction units involved in the accident, such as the steel structure construction team and the concrete construction team, also engaged in irregularities. Therefore, the responsible persons related to the accident have also been held accountable. Among them, apart from the actual person in charge of Yufei Company, Qi Mouming, who died in the accident and was recommended by the investigation team to be exempted from criminal responsibility, five individuals including Xie Mouping, the legal representative of Yufei Company and Qi Mouming’s wife, and Wu Moufeng, the person in charge of the steel structure construction team, have been released on bail pending trial by the Yuyao City Public Security Bureau in September 2023 on suspicion of committing a major liability accident crime.
With the release of the accident investigation report and the public disclosure of the aforementioned penalty information, the process of holding those responsible for this major safety incident has come to a close.
Three violations within three months result in fines
According to the information published on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, Yufei Company was established on June 17, 2014, with a registered capital of 6.8 million yuan. The legal representative of the company is Xie Mouping, and its business scope includes manufacturing plastic packaging boxes and containers, as well as plastic products. Currently, the company is in normal operation.
Based on CHAILEEDO’s previous investigation, Yufei Company has years of experience in producing cosmetic packaging materials, automatic eyebrow pencils, eyeliner pencils, and other cosmetic pens. Its products are mainly sold in markets including China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, North America, and South America. The factory covers an area of 800 square meters. Additionally, the company was once a supplier of Ante Corporation, with a total order amount of approximately 1.5 million yuan for OEM manufacturing.
It is worth noting that besides the 1.35 million yuan penalty imposed for the major safety incident, Yufei Company was also fined for various safety violations in October of the previous year and in January of this year.
According to the administrative penalty information released by the Yuyao City Emergency Management Bureau on October 9, 2023, Yufei Company was fined 250,000 yuan for special operations personnel not receiving specialized safety training and qualifications as required by the regulations and for violating Article 30, Paragraph 1 of the Safety Production Law, in accordance with Article 97, Item (7) of the Safety Production Law.
Furthermore, according to another administrative penalty information released by the Yuyao City Emergency Management Bureau on January 19 of this year, Yufei Company was fined 16,000 yuan on November 22, 2023, for the installation and use of safety equipment that did not comply with national standards, in violation of Article 36, Paragraph 1 of the Safety Production Law.
In other words, within the three months following the occurrence of the August 23 safety incident, Yufei Company was fined twice for violating relevant provisions of the Safety Production Law by the Yuyao City Emergency Management Bureau. The total amount of these three fines is 1.616 million yuan. In response to this, industry insiders commented, “This indicates that the company has a very weak awareness of safety production.”
Safety production is the bottom line for cosmetic companies
Being prepared for danger in times of peace, sounding the alarm bells. Safety production has always been the bottom line for all industries. Although in recent years, with the increasing attention from the government to safety issues in the production and operation of cosmetic companies, as well as the gradual maturity and standardization of production, the occurrence of safety incidents in cosmetic factories/companies is relatively rare. However, safety production in the cosmetics industry is still not “accident-free” and incidents occasionally occur.
According to incomplete statistics from CHAILEEDO, since 2019, there have been an average of 1 to 2 production safety accidents in the industry each year, causing varying degrees of casualties. Among them, a fire accident in a daily chemical processing plant in Ningbo in September 2019 resulted in 19 deaths. The cause of the accident was the ignition of perfume materials due to static electricity, and the employees failed to use fire extinguishers correctly. Instead, they fanned the flames with their mouths and cardboard, missing the best opportunity to put out the fire.
Industry insiders believe that all safety accidents are actually “man-made disasters,” whether it is the illegal construction of factory buildings, illegal subcontracting of projects, or employees not knowing how to extinguish fires. These incidents reflect the negligence and mistakes in the management of companies/factories. “Although the cosmetics industry is not heavy industry in the traditional sense, its production process still involves a large number of chemical handling, mechanical operations, and other aspects, and potential risks cannot be underestimated. Therefore, cosmetic companies must consider safety production as an uncompromising bottom line and a prerequisite for development.”
A factory manager in Guangzhou explained that factories usually provide continuous training and education to their employees to ensure that each employee recognizes the importance of safety and knows how to avoid risks in their daily work and how to self-rescue and rescue others in emergencies. He believes, “This is not only responsible for the safety of employees themselves but also protects the reputation of the company and the entire industry.”
The manager also stated that from the perspective of factory construction, it is necessary to strengthen the establishment and implementation of safety production standards and processes, develop operational procedures that are in line with the actual situation of the company based on national safety production laws, regulations, and industry standards, and establish a strict safety inspection mechanism. He also emphasized, “Regular audits and improvements of production equipment, storage conditions, and employee operating procedures are crucial. In short, no work should be carried out recklessly without completing safety confirmation and risk assessment.”
In fact, cosmetic regulations also have safety requirements and regulations for production workshops and storage areas in cosmetic factories. For example, the “Cosmetic Production License Work Specifications” require that “processes involving flammability, explosiveness, corrosiveness, dust generation, and difficult cleaning should be conducted in separate production workshops with dedicated production equipment and corresponding hygiene and safety measures.” It also requires that “the storage area of the factory should have designated areas or facilities for storing hazardous substances with flammable, explosive, toxic, or corrosive properties.” It is evident that these regulations are aimed at protecting the safety of the factory and production personnel.
There is no doubt that safety production is not only related to the survival of the company and the safety of employees’ lives but also affects the long-term development of the cosmetics industry. Therefore, “instilling a deep sense of safety awareness” should be the minimum bottom line for every company/enterprise.
