Directive No. 78-TTg on ensuring safety during storage, transportation, distribution, and use of explosives

DIRECTIVE

||| OF THE PRIME MINISTER NUMBER 78/TTG ON JULY 24, 1962
||| REGARDING THE ENSURING OF SAFETY IN THE STORAGE, TRANSPORTATION, DISTRIBUTION AND USE OF EXPLOSIVES

Explosives are a very essential material for construction sites, mines, geological survey teams... They help reduce production costs, save manpower, shorten production time, and alleviate the workload for workers. However, alongside these benefits, explosives can also become dangerous and cause casualties and property damage if not transported, stored, and used according to technical rules and safety standards. Moreover, any lapses in the storage, transportation, distribution, and use of explosives could provide opportunities for counter-revolutionary elements to engage in sabotage activities.

For a long time, various sectors, localities, and production units have recognized the importance of this issue. The Ministry of Industry has issued a temporary regulation on explosives, while the transportation, geology, and other sectors have established technical rules for their use. Many mines have assigned dedicated personnel to handle blasting operations and trained them accordingly. Some warehouses have been constructed relatively safely, with management procedures, issuance, and protection measures being implemented. Generally, there has been progress in ensuring safety during the storage, transportation, distribution, and use of explosives. However, compared to the established safety principles, many places still seriously violate these regulations. Such violations often manifest in the following ways:

||| - The location and architectural design of explosive storage facilities do not ensure safety; many explosive warehouses are located in densely populated areas, and some are built with bamboo and reed materials, with unstable doors.

||| - Inventory records for warehouse receipts and shipments are unclear; sometimes the actual quantity of explosives does not match the records.

||| - Security for warehouses is often neglected. In some cases, large mine warehouses are placed in remote locations but lack adequate security resources and fire prevention equipment.

||| - The distribution of explosives is often not strictly controlled; in some places, mines are distributed based on the volume of rock or given out as needed without tracking whether they are fully utilized. There are instances where mines are sold to stone workers or cooperatives, or even traded for food or fishing.

||| - During the use of explosives, many places fail to adequately train workers and civilian laborers on technical rules, leading to numerous workplace accidents.

The reasons for the aforementioned situation are that many production sectors and localities have not truly prioritized ensuring safety during the storage and use of explosives, have not thoroughly studied existing regulations and guidelines to guide and supervise implementation, and have not actively addressed difficulties and proposals from units regarding this matter. In many places, leaders of production and construction units have not fully understood and strictly adhered to technical rules for the storage and use of explosives, and have neglected educating workers about these rules. Administrative committees of regions, cities, and provinces generally have not paid sufficient attention to guiding and supervising the strict implementation of existing regulations within their jurisdictions.

Currently, the amount of explosives used in production and construction is increasing. To promptly address the aforementioned shortcomings, further strengthen workplace safety, and prevent potential accidents, sectors and localities need to actively implement several urgent tasks:

1. It is necessary to educate and remind cadres, employees, and workers in sectors and units using explosives to fully understand the importance of ensuring safety during the storage, transportation, distribution, and use of explosives, thereby enhancing everyone's sense of responsibility, vigilance, and discipline in strictly adhering to existing regulations. For workers using explosives, it is particularly important to strengthen education on technical safety rules and regularly check compliance with these rules.

2. While awaiting the State to issue a comprehensive regulation on the storage and use of explosives, sectors must urge subordinate units to strictly follow the regulations and rules already issued by their respective sectors. If a sector lacks or does not have such regulations, it should apply the temporary regulation on explosives issued by the Heavy Industry Ministry (the Heavy Industry Ministry is responsible for providing this document to relevant sectors and localities). When implementing existing regulations and rules, sectors should pay attention to summarizing experiences to serve the development of a formal regulation in the future.

3. Based on the temporary regulation on explosives issued by the Heavy Industry Ministry and the regulations and rules issued by other Ministries, incorporating the experiences gained from implementation, the Heavy Industry Ministry is responsible for coordinating with the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Science Committee, the Ministry of Transport, and other relevant Ministries to study, supplement, and revise these regulations into a draft formal regulation on the storage, transportation, distribution, and use of explosives to be submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval in the third quarter of this year.

4. Sectors and localities need to strictly manage their stock of explosives; they should coordinate with labor and public security agencies to immediately conduct inspections on the current situation of storage, transportation, distribution, and use of explosives, promptly identify unsafe situations, and take measures to eliminate potential risks that could lead to unexpected harm and rectify deficiencies that enemies might exploit for sabotage. After the inspection, sectors and localities must strictly enforce regular and periodic inspection systems for this issue.

Ensuring safety during the storage, transportation, distribution, and use of explosives is very important both economically and politically. Ministries, localities, production facilities, and construction sites need to thoroughly study and implement this Directive. The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Public Security are responsible for guiding and supervising the relevant industries and localities in effectively implementing this Directive and reporting the results to the Office of the Prime Minister.

Le Thanh Nghia

(Signed)