Pay Attention to the Safety of Color Activities and Don’t Let Colors Become Black and White

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  At the night of June 27th, 2015, in the eight immortals waterpark of Xibei North of Taiwan, a dust explosion accident happened because of the color powder during the Color Play party. The fire caused over 500 people burned, whom of the age mostly from 18 to 29. Until July 23rd, 9 people died and 170 are still struggling to live. Due to the explosion, the planned Gongliao international ocean music festival in Xinbei will be indefinitely postponed. Shanghai, Shenyang, Chongqing and Hokkaido cancelled "The Color Run"; the "Life In Color——World’s Largest Paint Party" would be held on July 25th in Hong Kong Asia World Expo Arena will be changed into concert without colors and the "color run" in December will not be held there; Hong Kong Fire Services Department also increases the patrol in public amusement areas and hasn’t found the use of colors in activities.
  Multiple crises in color activities
  Color activity derives from the traditional Holi Day of Hinduism. It is at the end of winter and beginning of spring and equals to the traditional New Year. During the holiday, Hinduism believers will get together to dance and sing for several days. They throw color powder made of flowers to each other to celebrate the end of single-colored winter and the beginning of spring with everything starting to grow. In recent years, color activity is more and more welcomed since it has impressive visual effects and spreads the idea of happiness, individuality and health. In 2014, the "color run" has attracted more than 50 countries to carry out over 300 activities of 5 kilometers’ running with millions of participants. But the color explosion in Taiwan put the ignored problem during color carnivals in front of us that -- how good is the safety of the colors that spread on us and directly contacted with the skin?
  In fact, even in India, every year before Holi Day, government notice would be seen to ask people purchase qualified color powder in bags. Taiwan Central News Agency quoted the interview on dermatologist S.K. Arora of Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh that, the color dyes in bulk in India may have large amount of chromium, quartz and lead that are harmful to human beings. And even some one use glass fragments as color powder. On March 8th, 2012, the "toxic color powder" incident during the Holi Festival in slum Dharavi at the countryside of Bombay which is the financial and entertainment center of West India led to a death of 13-year-old boy and 200 people going to hospital (mosty were children from 8 to 10). They had the symptoms of giddiness, nausea and vomiting, burning sensation on skin and breathless. According to police investigation, the toxic powder may come from the waste yard of Dharavi where the local leather factory emits toxic chemical substances and effluents there. Some children from the slum may wrongly sell the discarded dyes as color power since the package of blue dye was found there.   Indian government has struggled with the toxic powder in Holi Day for dozens of years. The safety problem cannot be neglected since the popularity of color activities.
  Unknown color activities
  The dyes in color activities can be divided into two kinds, one is liquid and the other is solid powder.
  The Hong Kong Life in Color Concert planned to use the former one. The head of the host unit Mr. Wang said in a TV interview that, water-soluble and nontoxic dye would be spread by carbon dioxide around the stage and safety test document was provided to prove it would not lead to firework or powder. It also demonstrated the dye was non-flammable and washable. But Mr. Wang didn’t know the ingredients of the dye and needed to check on materials.
  The Holi Day, color run and the Color Play in Taiwan all used powder dye. There was no accident since 2011 in color run. The general host unit America Color Run Company replied through email that, the powder they use has nothing to do with that in Taiwan explosion. It is made of cornstarch, baking soda and FD&C dyes that meet the demand of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which has passed a series tests and the flammability test according to EU standard, so it is completely safe. But the host unit of Taiwan color run was fined by Taipei government due to the improper dispose of powder after the activity that caused pollution to rivers. The Environmental protection department assessed that, the powder would intersperse among the air as particles that has negative effects on human health and environment. Even it was nontoxic, as long as people are exposed to high degree dust, the health can be influences no matter the length of the time. The official website of America color run company also said, while spreading the color powder, it can only be thrown on the lower half of body and participants are suggested to wear glasses or goggles for their eyes and use a bandana or dust mask for their mouths.
  The official website of Holland Kingdom of Colors Company which specially produces Holi Day color powder said that, the colorful cornstarch is 100% organic raw material food coloring that meets the demands of EU EN-71 standard and India National Botanical Research Institute, passes the tests of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and is nontoxic and non-flammable. But "Holi Colors in general can be toxic" and "we always warn people not to inhale or swallow large quantities because of possible allergic reactions." We also suggested "using the product outdoor and away from heat sources or opening fire."   The official declaration of Color Play 2013 said that, the color powder used at the Eight Immortals Party was the "best powder" developed by the team. It used "100% food coloring", through "strict quality control manufacturing", and was very different from some foreign "cosmetic dye" or "chemical dye". "Only the color powder in Color Play was edible". In 2013, physical teacher Li Hua in Taiwan put forward that high degree color powder has faster reaction rate while suspending in the air as single article that a little spark can cause explosion with the damage even more serious than methane gas explosion. For this, the official response of Color Play said, no matter what kind of powder, "as long as it has fire point, when reaches a high degree in a confined space, the large amount of combustion source may lead to combustion explosion." But the powder of Color Play added "1% to 5% water to make it more colorful that was totally different from the dry producing process of foreign ones, then explosive rate was lower."
  However, according to the report of Hou Youyi, Deputy Mayor of Xinbei the host unit of the Eight Immortals Party spread color powder to the public by carbon dioxide cylinders for stage effect. When met the heat source (might be cigarettes, hi-heat lights or sparks caused by mechanics or sound vibration), the powder exploded, which was the root cause of the accident. Lu Shouqian, Adjunct Assistant Professor of fire control department of Taiwan Wufeng University analyzed the fundamental reason was the combination of the six major elements for dust explosion -- particle size, concentration, turbulence, moisture, dust minimum sum for fire and multiple explosions due to the neglect for risks by the host unit. The corn flour used was small in size and there was already 3 tons of color powder paved the ground of 5cm thick. The spread added the concentration of color powder in the air and electric fan brought the powder turbulence. The 40 left butts, incident lights (high temperature electric light bulb filament), electrostatic discharge and friction spark offered the energy for the fire and led to explosion. After the first explosion, the staff wrongly used the carbon dioxide cylinders as fire extinguishers and people stirred up the powders on the ground when running away, which led to chain explosion of dust.
  Therefore, while the problems of containing toxic heavy metal and chemical substances of the dyes are solved, there are still potential dangers like erosion of human skin, respiratory tract and lung, environmental pollution and dust explosion.   How is the way to keep from dangers?
  Activity hosts and supervision department of government should choose the place cautiously and do careful fire control preparation.
  In the case of the Eight Immortals, the party was held in a hot and dry summer night at a dried swimming pool. The temporary stage had two meters gap to the ground and the main stage with dense carbon dioxide cylinders and the overhead projector lamps at both sides created a type, which was like to directly spread powder to the crowds in a valley. Media in Taiwan said according to the firefighters that, the dust at the pool bottom accumulated due to the block of the pool wall and then caused chain explosion. People had to climb the slippy wall to get out, and maybe it led to the serious injuries. Although the firefighting truck came immediately, it cannot get through since the narrow alley there and wasted valuable rescuing time. The 2014 color party was in a seaview poolside with moisture air and open place that lowered the danger risks. Even a fire broke out that people could have lager hope of getting away. The color run stretched for 5 kilometers and controlled the density of color powder. Zeng Yonghong, Acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer of Hong Kong Fire Services Department, said dust may not that easy to burn in a broad place outbe.
  But no matter how to reduce risks, tragedies always happen. So when planning an activity, related departments should ask host unit to do the emergent firefighting preparation well. According to Taiwan police, though the Color Play officially announced the company knows the risk of explosion, there was only one extinguisher at the scene and far from enough for dust explosion. The host unit cannot escape from its responsibility. Learnt from this, National Security Supervision Bureau said on the safety production scheduling meeting on June 29th that, it should immediately carry out special examination on the operation places of combustible color powder. In accordance with the Five Principles on Beware of Enterprise Dust Explosion, it needs to strengthen security supervision and enterprises with no explosion venting devices of dust-cleaning system, with no cleaned operation place and with severe safety loopholes shall be ordered to halt production. Gao Yongwen, Director of Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau said that, when received the application for temporary activity license, the firefight department would do examination and learn the form and people arrangement of the activity to evaluate firefighting security risk, make related regulations and then give the license when reached the standard. American color run company also said the activity has passed strict examining procedure and tested comprehensively that it has the confidence in safety.   Besides, the whole society has to improve safety awareness. Taiwan police thought that cigarettes might be the reason for the tragedy. The host unit hasn’t warned the people before to control the fire source that a lot of butts were found there. Some said some workers "spread the powder with cigarette in mouth". It cannot see clearly after the explosion that injured tourists didn’t know where to go. The staff used water column to put out the fire that "the smell of BBQ" was all around the place. In order to avoid the similar tragedies, National Security Supervision Bureau conference stressed it should strengthen the popularization of the danger of dust explosion and improve citizen’s safety awareness. That is to say, the host unit should warn staff and participants before and do strict securities check to keep the fire source out of the place. Participants should consider the potential risks, use safe dyes, choose open areas and be familiar with the escaping route.
  The explosion made happy faces into white photos on the tombstones that it destroyed young and pretty faces and brought haunted physical and mental trauma. The Xinbei Health Bureau said that, the injured, families, witnesses and rescuers of the accident may get the pressure response of fear, angry, anxiety and insomnia that psychological consulting service is provided for them free of charge.
  It’s never too late to mend.
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