This document summarizes information about benzene, including its chemical properties, uses, hazards, transportation considerations, and major pollution accidents involving benzene spills in China. It discusses benzene's flammability, toxicity to humans upon both acute and chronic exposure, and role in several industrial applications and consumer products. Major pollution events from two separate Chinese chemical plant explosions in 2005 contaminated the Songhua and Yangtze Rivers with benzene.

1. CHEMICAL LOGISTICS BENZENE Members: Jane Tan (s10049162D) Poon Yoke Chee ( s10046916F) Tan Lee Min ( s10047130J) Yeo Cai Hua ( s10049307C)

12. WORLD CONSUMPTION From the diagram above, we can deduce that United States and Western Europe stand the most portions in the pie chart. North America alone stands 33% of the world consumption.

13. WORLD CONSUMPTION China’s total benzene consumption is 3.5 million tonnes. Ethylbenzene with 49.1% occupies the most. Because it is used for those common items we will use in our daily lives & some are needed for almost everyone. Used in: paints, lacquers, adhesives, inks, and cleaning materials. In production of - dyes, perfumes, plastics and pesticides

14. TRANSPORTATION As benzene is classified class 3 for flammability, we need to be very careful when we transport benzene. We must be aware things that can cause fire to be put a distance away from benzene. From the information of personal safety provided by the MSDS, we should put on splash goggles, lab coat, vapour respirator and gloves to protect themselves from coming in contact with benzene. Before we transport benzene, we should consult a specialist before handling this product.

15. Pollution Accidents

16. In November 13 2005, an explosion occurred at a PetroChina chemical plant in Jilin Province that released over a hundred tons of benzene and nitrobenzene into the 1,897-kilometer-long (1,176-mile) Songhua River. The enormous benzene slick then flowed through the Heilongjiang Provinces’ capital Harbin and into Russia by way of the Amur river. Benzene levels were 108 times above national safety levels. The polluting material index had dropped to 29 times above national safety levels when the contaminants reached the border of Jilin and Heilongjiang Songyuan, a city of more than 400,000 located between Jilin and Harbin, shut off the part of its water system that is linked to the river but told the public it was just doing repairs. Residents were warned not to drink water from rivers. The Jilin Petrochemical Company plant where the November explosions occurred .

17. Earlier in January 2006, the spill itself passed Russia's major Far Eastern urban centre Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Benzene pollution levels in the Amur River remained within permitted levels, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on January 6, 2006. Subsequently, the spill proceeded through scarcely populated plains until it reached the Pacific in the Sea of Okhotsk. Polluted Songhua River is seen as the State Environment Protection Administration confirmed that pollutants containing benzene and nitrobenzene contaminated the river after a chemical-plant blast at the upper reaches in Northeast China. Marked off with warning tape, the polluted Songhua River is frozen over.

18. Dead fish can be seen in the Songhua River as the State Environment Protection Administration confirmed that pollutants containing benzene and nitrobenzene contaminated the river after a chemical-plant blast at the upper reaches in Northeast China. Polluted water in Songhua River reaches Harbin, the capital of north-eastern Heilongjiang province November 24, 2005. A stretch of potentially lethally polluted river water headed towards one of China's biggest cities after an explosion at a petrochemical plant. The blast had caused 'major pollution' in the Songhua River from which Harbin and home to nine million people, draws its drinking water.

19. On November 26 th , 2005, another chemical plant exploded in China, spewing toxic benzene into the water supply of a central region as authorities in the country's north-east struggle to protect millions of people from an earlier spill. The blast at the Yingte Chemical Co in Dianjiang, part of the huge Chongqing municipality straddling the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, killed one worker and forced the evacuation of 6000 nearby residents and the closure of schools. People in the area were warned not to drink water from the local river, a tributary of the Yangtze, because of concern that carcinogenic benzene had spilled.

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