Tragedy sparks LPG safety concerns

The death of 14 people in an explosion caused by a gas leak in a hotpot restaurant in Shouyang county, Shanxi province, on Nov 23 has shocked the nation. The tragedy, which also left 47 people injured, has sent shivers down the spine of everyone who enjoys a hotpot dinner.

The explosion evoked calls online to review the use of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders in hotpot restaurants. And not surprisingly, the local government has banned the use of LPG cylinders in hotpot restaurants and launched inspections to weed out other unnecessary explosive and inflammable materials from eateries.

Hotpot restaurant owners in Shouyang, for their part, have been buying electric cookers to replace gas stoves to heat the hotpot soup and to keep it warm.

The tragedy has scared hotpot lovers in other places, too, keeping them away from restaurants still using LPG cylinders.

Many restaurants favor LPG cylinders because they are less costly than piped gas, because pipelines require considerable investment to install and piped gas is not available in many places. A restaurant owner may have to spend about 30,000 yuan ($4,815) to install a pipeline and wait up to a month to get piped gas. The money and time are big problems for many, especially those restaurateurs who lease their premises, says Huang Yi from Sichuan province, who has been running a hotpot restaurant for six years.

Although piped gas is much safer, the cost of installing pipelines for gas may be higher in places where natural gas is not easily available, Huang says.

As far as electric cookers are concerned, the cost of electricity is twice that of LPG cylinders. This means the cost of using LPG cylinders is much less than using pipe gas or electric cookers, which is to the advantage of restaurateurs, most of whom care more about profits than the safety of their customers and employees, he says.

Economic interests have become a game-changer in the restaurant business. That some filling stations sell LPG mixed with dimethylether, a highly inflammable substance, to cut costs is an open secret in the restaurant business. A metric ton of dimethylether costs about 2,000 yuan less than LPG.

A ban on adulterated LPG was imposed in 2008 by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and a fresh campaign against its buying and selling was launched in 2010. But they have failed to eliminate the practice. The fact is bans and other government measures to make the restaurant business safer are not enough to eliminate the risks.

But the economic burden on restaurateurs should not be used as the pretext for using LPG cylinders in hotpot restaurants. To regulate the market, the government has to introduce favorable policies and issue stricter rules. Hotpot restaurant owners in Shouyang are buying electric cookers because they are afraid of flouting the local government's new rules and, at the same time, want their customers back. Also, they know that the higher costs they have to bear in the short run can be more than covered in the long run.

It is time the government made hotpot restaurant owners put the safety of their customers and employees before profit. The government should make it clear to restaurateurs that LPG cylinders have to make way for pipeline gas in hotpot restaurants.

In fact, major hotpot restaurant chains such as Haidilao, the most popular in Beijing, are already using either piped gas or electric cookers.

But overall, LPG cylinders still account for a considerable proportion of hotpot restaurants. From 2002 to 2011, the proportion of LPG cylinders as heating source in the hotpot industry dropped from 78.3 percent to 61.4 percent, suggesting enormous efforts are still needed, according to a research report by Song Wei and Luo Xiaohang, senior analysts at Qianinfo Consulting Co Ltd in Beijing.

Even more frustrating, the absolute number of LPG cylinders used in the industry has actually increased from 1.9 million in 2007 to 3.2 million in 2011.

The Hotpot Commission of China Cuisine Association has advised its members to avoid using LPG cylinders, says Bian Jiang, assistant to the director of the association.

So let's hope the tragedy in Shouyang county can serve as a driving force to completely stop the use of LPG cylinders in hotpot restaurants.

The hotpot industry has to be made safer.

The author is a reporter with China Daily. e-mail: hebolin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/05/2012 page8)