Review Reports - A Statistical Analysis of Hazardous Chemical Fatalities (HCFs) in China between 2015 and 2021

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have improved the article according to the given recommendations. In this form it is ready to be published

Author Response

Your suggestions are critical to improving the quality of the manuscript. Thank you very much for your review of our manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

The text fits the scope of Sustainability as a whole. The theme is interesting and is well addressed by the authors, in particular, the visual component of the paper. The structure of the text is adequate and is what one expects from a serious, rigorous scientific work. The abstract, keywords and introduction are informative. The overview of the relevant literature is very up to date, no doubt, a great plus of the paper. The text is well interspaced with many high quality international journal references with 5 years or less, denoting the authors proficiency about the subject. However, there is a lack of occidental academic literature on the subject, meaning that the authors may be biased toward oriental academic literature and ignoring important statistical analysis of hazardous chemical fatalities from around the world. This issue must be addressed by the authors. Methodologically all procedures are correct, although not particularly sophisticated in statistical terms.

The topic of the paper is moderately original and adds, in an incremental fashion, to the subject area published content. However it is not a disruptive paper. The text is relatively clear and easy to read, although, at times, one can perceive that the authors are not English natives. Finally, it is important to note that the conclusions are, in my perspective, consistent with the evidence and arguments presented and that the authors address the main question posed at the beginning of the text.

Author Response

Your suggestions are critical to improving the quality of the manuscript. We have ignored foreign scholars' research in related fields before. According to your suggestion, we have added many foreign scholars' research work on hazardous chemicals to the references, such as references [10], [12], [34-37] and so on. In addition, we have sorted out the English of the manuscript. Thank you again for your suggestions on the manuscript.

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This manuscript presents an analysis on the numbers of hazardous chemical fatalities in China between 2015 and 2021. Data is taken from the China Chemical Safety Association as well as the national emergency management body in China. The hazardous chemical casualty data is taken based on casualty data in chemical companies (not sure how this was classified?) as well as those from transportation of hazardous chemicals.

Overall, Here are my main concerns:
1. The data is taken from chemical companies and from transportation of hazardous chemicals. First of all, what do "chemical companies" mean? Some context on how the classification is done would be useful, as well as some discussion on the spread of industries throughout the nation. Secondly, would it be appropriate to attribute all accidents from a "chemical company" to accidents related to hazardous chemicals? Are there any further analysis that can be done on this? What about slips/trips/falls, or electrical hazards (or any other types)? Do we assume that these not happen in these types of companies?

2. The methods description is very brief. What does "statistical theory" mean? If the data merely talk about averages (not clear in the manuscript), then classifying this as "statistical theory" is not appropriate. More precise definition is needed.

3. The analysis of monthly, daily, hourly patterns is unclear. Are these supposed to be averages? Then the description of figures need to be more complete, along with the methods section.

Finally, as a more general feedback, my main concern is that most of the analysis is highly inadequate, and the numbers presented without context. Did the authors consider why there would be these types of patterns shown in the figures? Do the patterns displayed by the statistical data have anything to do with periods of work, work culture, production rate, numbers of people employed, etc.? How about frequency and incidence rates of the data? Consideration of these might give more meaningful context on the discussion. I'm also highly apprehensive on the statement that "misoperation of personnel, ignorance of safety and ignorance of warnings are the main causes identified for these events". While these are indeed direct causes, identifying root causes of these incidents would be a much more useful outcome - something that a more thorough analysis of the data presented (as well as more thinking of the context of the industry, culture, governance) could have produced.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

Point 1: The data is taken from chemical companies and from transportation of hazardous chemicals. First of all, what do "chemical companies" mean? Some context on how the classification is done would be useful, as well as some discussion on the spread of industries throughout the nation. Secondly, would it be appropriate to attribute all accidents from a "chemical company" to accidents related to hazardous chemicals? Are there any further analysis that can be done on this? What about slips/trips/falls, or electrical hazards (or any other types)? Do we assume that these not happen in these types of companies?  

Response 1: Your opinion is very important to improve the quality of the manuscript.

According to the definition of hazardous chemicals, chemicals that are harmful to humans, equipment, and the environment can be defined as hazardous chemicals. Since the deaths caused by chemicals are selected in this article, these chemicals can be considered collectively hazardous chemicals.

Due to the sudden nature of hazardous chemical casualties that occurred in restaurants, rural areas, and homes, this article will not study them. In addition, in the case of non-chemical incidents, this article will not analyze.

Point 2: The methods description is very brief. What does "statistical theory" mean? If the data merely talk about averages (not clear in the manuscript), then classifying this as "statistical theory" is not appropriate. More precise definition is needed.

Response 2: Statistical analysis methods mainly use mathematical analysis methods to collect data and establish mathematical statistical analysis models to perform mathematical statistics and analysis on various data and information obtained through investigations, and then to form quantitative conclusions. This manuscript analyzes the statistical law of hazardous chemical incidents by selecting multiple hazardous chemical incidents and 7-year hazardous chemical death incidents, and then reveals the relationship, change law and development trend of the characteristics of hazardous chemical incidents in China.

Point 3: The analysis of monthly, daily, hourly patterns is unclear. Are these supposed to be averages? Then the description of figures need to be more complete, along with the methods section.

Response 3: Different numbers are classified according to statistics and then according to month, day, and hour, not the average value obtained. According to the source of the accident, we crawled the time characteristics of the accident. Regarding the description of the picture, we have indeed neglected this problem, and the description of the picture is indeed not complete. Therefore, we have added corresponding descriptions under the different sheets.

Point 4: Finally, as a more general feedback, my main concern is that most of the analysis is highly inadequate, and the numbers presented without context. Did the authors consider why there would be these types of patterns shown in the figures? Do the patterns displayed by the statistical data have anything to do with periods of work, work culture, production rate, numbers of people employed, etc.? How about frequency and incidence rates of the data? Consideration of these might give more meaningful context on the discussion. I'm also highly apprehensive on the statement that "misoperation of personnel, ignorance of safety and ignorance of warnings are the main causes identified for these events". While these are indeed direct causes, identifying root causes of these incidents would be a much more useful outcome - something that a more thorough analysis of the data presented (as well as more thinking of the context of the industry, culture, governance) could have produced.

Response 4: This article refers to the official website of the China Chemical Safety Association and the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People's Republic of China on the casualties of hazardous chemicals for selection and analysis. The data sources are reliable and official. Due to space reasons, the article does not list all events. The accident characteristics selected in this article are relatively straightforward, and the relevance of accident characteristics is discussed appropriately in the discussion section.

It is true that external factors such as industry, culture, and governance background may also have an impact on the occurrence of accidents. Because these external accident characteristics are not supported by actual data, they will be discussed in the process of statistical analysis. However, these elements have different chemical characteristics. The influence of product manufacturers does exist.

Reviewer 2 Report

Thank you for the opportunity to review this article. My only comment is concerned with the Discussion section. Please, add more literature in this section in order to compare the results received with the previous research.

Author Response

Point 1: Thank you for the opportunity to review this article. My only comment is concerned with the Discussion section. Please, add more literature in this section in order to compare the results received with the previous research.  

Response 1: Your suggestions are very important to improve the quality of the article. Accident statistics mostly select several accident characteristics for analysis, and lack the comprehensive and cross-analysis among the accident characteristics. In addition, the analysis of multiple characteristic factors is not enough to analyse the accident in depth, so this article focuses on the analysis of the accident from other aspects. Due to the different angles of accident analysis (this article mainly analyzes the deaths of hazardous chemicals from 2015 to 2021), the statistical analysis data is relatively new. Therefore, there is no other literature with the same data to study this, so the relevant literature is described in the literature review section.

Reviewer 3 Report

The text fits the scope of Mathematics as a whole. The theme is very interesting and is well addressed by the authors, in particular, the visual component of the paper. The structure of the text is adequate and is what one expects from a serious, rigorous scientific work. The abstract, keywords and introduction are informative. The overview of the relevant literature is very up to date, no doubt, a great plus of the paper. The text is well interspaced with many high quality international journal references with 5 years or less, denoting the authors proficiency about the subject. However, there is a lack of occidental academic literature on the subject, meaning that the authors may be biased toward oriental academic literature and ignoring important statistical analysis of hazardous chemical fatalities from around the world. This issue must be addressed by the authors. Methodologically all procedures are correct, although not particularly sophisticated in statistical terms. The conclusion section, is too short, and must be extended.

Furthermore, the authors must specifically address the questions below:

The lines in figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 should be removed as they are superfluous;
It is essential for the resolution and sharpness of all figures to be improved and at 100% size of the text, they are all fuzzy and some (as figure 5) become unreadable;
The shortcomings of the paper must be highlighted and better addressed;
Future work and research agenda must be addressed;
This portion of the text should be removed, as the authors present no proof for it: “Regarding the new national policies, China still pays great attention to the safety of chemical enterprises, and relevant laws and regulations are constantly updated and issued. This also shows that China is also paying more and more attention to the safety of chemical enterprises. It is believed that through policy constraints, the safety situation of hazardous chemicals in China will be further improved”.

Only after these improvements would I consider the article for publication.

Author Response

Point 1: The lines in figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 should be removed as they are superfluous. 

Response 1: Your opinion is necessary to improve the quality of the article.

The reason why the line segments in the picture need to be retained is that it can be seen that the changing trend of the accident feature data is obvious and intuitive, so the lines in the picture are retained.

Point 2: It is essential for the resolution and sharpness of all figures to be improved and at 100% size of the text, they are all fuzzy and some (as figure 5) become unreadable.

Response 2: Many pictures are original pictures generated by programming software, the files are relatively large, and they are not compressed. When the picture is too small, the information in the picture is not fully represented. Therefore, in the manuscript, we have enlarged the picture.

Point 3: This portion of the text should be removed, as the authors present no proof for it: “Regarding the new national policies, China still pays great attention to the safety of chemical enterprises, and relevant laws and regulations are constantly updated and issued. This also shows that China is also paying more and more attention to the safety of chemical enterprises. It is believed that through policy constraints, the safety situation of hazardous chemicals in China will be further improved”.

Response 3: In 2020, my country issued the "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening the Work of Safe Production of Hazardous Chemicals", "Notice on Carrying out the Centralized Rectification of Road Transport Safety of Hazardous Chemicals" and other documents. To a certain extent, China attaches great importance to the safety of chemical companies. Related descriptions are also added to the text.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have not sufficiently addressed my comment. My original recommendation remains.

Author Response

Since the last submitted manuscript was submitted in the revision mode, many of the revisions may not be prominent. We are sorry for this, so we have made a wide range of revisions and annotations. Hope this modification can satisfy you.

Point 1

The data is taken from chemical companies and from transportation of hazardous chemicals. First of all, what do "chemical companies" mean? Some context on how the classification is done would be useful, as well as some discussion on the spread of industries throughout the nation.

Response 1

Your opinion is very important to improve the quality of the manuscript.

The so-called chemical companies refer to related companies that produce, store, transport, and use chemical products (Section 2.1). Hazardous chemicals generally refer to highly toxic chemicals and other chemicals that are toxic, corrosive, explosive, flammable, combustion-supporting, etc., which are harmful to humans, facilities, and environment. The so-called chemical companies refer to related companies that produce, store, transport, and use chemicals. According to statistics, more than 80% of chemicals are "hazardous chemicals." As China is the world's second largest producer and user of hazardous chemicals, it is of great significance to carry out statistical analysis of hazardous chemical accidents. According to the national standard "Dangerous Goods Packaging Marks" (GB190-2009), hazardous chemicals can be divided into 8 categories, including a. Explosives; b. Compressed gases and liquefied gases; c. Flammable liquids; d. Flammable solids , Spontaneous com-bustion and wet combustibles; e. Oxidizers and organic peroxides; f. Drugs; g. Radioactive substances; h. Corrosives, eight hazardous chemicals. The follow-up content also provides related introductions.

Reflected in the manuscript

(Section 1)

Chemicals are the transformation of natural substances into multifunctional new substances through various processing techniques to meet the needs of human life and production. Due to the special physical and chemical properties of chemicals, dangerous events that cause casualties, equipment damage, and property losses often occur in various links of their production and use. In China, more than 80% of chemicals are called hazardous chemicals [1]. Hazardous chemicals generally refer to highly toxic chemicals and other chemicals that are toxic, corrosive, explosive, flammable, combustion-supporting, etc., which are harmful to humans, facilities, and environment. As China is the world's second largest producer and user of hazardous chemicals, it is of great significance to carry out statistical analysis of hazardous chemical accidents.

(Section 2.1)

The main types of hazardous chemical casualties selected in this study are casualties of chemical companies and deaths related to chemical transportation. The so-called chemical companies refer to related companies that produce, store, transport, and use chemical products. According to the definition of hazardous chemicals, chemicals that are harmful to humans, equipment, and the environment can be defined as hazardous chemicals. Since the deaths caused by chemicals are selected in this article, these chemicals can be considered collectively hazardous chemicals. Due to the sudden nature of hazardous chemical casualties that occurred in restaurants, rural areas, and homes, this article will not study them. In addition, in the case of non-chemical incidents, this article will not analyze. In the classification of different accident characteristics in this article, the national standards referred to include "Dangerous Goods Packaging Marks" (GB190-2009) and GB6441-1986 "Statistics on Accidents of Enterprise Workers' Casualties".

Point 2

Secondly, would it be appropriate to attribute all accidents from a "chemical company" to accidents related to hazardous chemicals? Are there any further analysis that can be done on this? What about slips/trips/falls, or electrical hazards (or any other types)? Do we assume that these not happen in these types of companies?

Response 2

It is unreasonable to attribute all accidents in chemical companies to accidents related to hazardous chemicals, so we also explain here. What needs to be clear is that casualties in chemical companies are not only caused by hazardous chemicals, but may also be caused by people slipping and falling, mechanical injuries, and falling objects. With reference to GB4661-85 "Classification of Casualties of Enterprise Employees", the casualties counted in this article mainly include vehicle injury incidents, burning incidents, fire incidents, various explosion incidents, and some other injury incidents during the transportation of hazardous chemicals. Due to the sudden nature of hazardous chemical casualties that occurred in restaurants, rural areas, and homes, this article will not study them. In addition, in the case of non-chemical incidents, this article will not analyse. This part also adds relevant expressions in the text.

Reflected in the manuscript

A cross-comprehensive analysis of hazardous chemical accidents was carried out from the aspects of time characteristics, geographical characteristics, accident type characteris-tics, types of hazardous chemicals, production links of hazardous chemicals, characteris-tics of accident causes, and accident classification. In addition, related preventive measures have also been proposed, and then provide a reference for the realization of safe production of hazardous chemicals. With reference to GB4661-85 "Classification of Casualties of Enterprise Employees", the casualties counted in this article mainly include vehicle injury incidents, burning incidents, fire incidents, various explosion incidents, and some other injury incidents during the transportation of hazardous chemicals. Due to the sudden nature of hazardous chemical casualties that occurred in restaurants, rural areas, and homes, this article will not study them. In addition, in the case of non-chemical inci-dents, this article will not analyse.

Point 3

The methods description is very brief. What does "statistical theory" mean? If the data merely talk about averages (not clear in the manuscript), then classifying this as "statistical theory" is not appropriate. More precise definition is needed.

Response 3

This really made us negligent, so we briefly introduced the basic process of statistical methods, The statistical analysis method is the use of mathematical analysis to collect data and establish mathematical statistical analysis models to perform mathematical statistics and analysis on various data and information obtained through investigations, and then to form quantitative conclusions. This manuscript analysed the statistical law of hazardous chemical incidents by selecting multiple hazardous chemical incidents and 7-year hazardous chemical death incidents, and then reveals the relationship, change law and development trend of the characteristics of hazardous chemical incidents in my country, the main processes of the statistical methods involved here include:

Statistically collate the data provided by the official website of the China Association for Chemical Safety and the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People's Republic of China, and conditionally screen out the data on the deaths of hazardous chemicals from 2015 to 2021.Extract the basic information of the accident, including the time of the accident, the number of deaths caused, and the location of the accident.Extract the characteristics of accidents and use comparative analysis methods to explore the differences in accidents.Classify and discuss in different parts of the article, clarify the main characteristics of the accident, and then conduct a summary analysis. This part also adds relevant expressions in the text.

Reflected in the manuscript

(Section 2.2)

Based on the above data sources, this study classified and extracted accident infor-mation. The study starts with the characteristics of accidents, focusing on the number of accidents and the number of deaths caused by accidents as the starting point for analysis. The statistical analysis method is the use of mathematical analysis to collect data and establish mathematical statistical analysis models to perform mathematical statistics and analysis on various data and information obtained through investigations, and then to form quantitative conclusions. This manuscript analyzed the statistical law of hazardous chemical incidents by selecting multiple hazardous chemical incidents and 7-year hazardous chemical death incidents, and then reveals the relationship, change law and development trend of the characteristics of hazardous chemical incidents in my country. The statistical analysis method is the use of mathematical analysis to collect data and establish mathematical statistical analysis models to perform mathematical statistics and analysis on various data and information obtained through investigations, and then to form quantitative conclusions, the main processes of the statistical methods involved here include:

Statistically collate the data provided by the official website of the China Associa-tion for Chemical Safety and the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People's Re-public of China, and conditionally screen out the data on the deaths of hazardous chemi-cals from 2015 to 2021. Extract the basic information of the accident, including the time of the accident, the number of deaths caused, and the location of the accident.Extract the characteristics of accidents and use comparative analysis methods to explore the differences in accidents.Classify and discuss in different parts of the article, clarify the main characteristics of the accident, and then conduct a summary analysis.

Point 4

The analysis of monthly, daily, hourly patterns is unclear. Are these supposed to be averages? Then the description of figures need to be more complete, along with the methods section.

Response 4

These dates are not averages, but are classified statistics after data integration. The number of incidents represents the total number of deaths of hazardous chemicals in statistics, sorted according to the month and time in which they occurred. According to the source of the accident, we crawled the time characteristics of the accident. Regarding the description of the picture, we have indeed neglected this problem, and the description of the picture is indeed not complete. Therefore, we have added corresponding descriptions under the different sheets.

Reflected in the manuscript:

(Section 3.1.2)

The monthly trend chart of the number of hazardous chemical casualties and the number of deaths is shown in Figure 2. The abscissa represents the monthly distribution of hazardous chemical accidents in my country from 2015 to 2021, and the ordinate rep-resents the number of hazardous chemical deaths in different months (blue (Color) and the number of deaths caused by hazardous chemical deaths (orange). The main purpose here is to count the events obtained by statistics according to the month of occurrence.

(Section 3.1.3)

The "week" trend chart of the number of hazardous chemical casualties and the number of deaths is shown in Figure 3. The abscissa represents the date distribution from Monday to Sunday (Monday to Sunday).The ordinate represents the number of deaths from hazardous chemicals (purple) and the number of deaths from hazardous chemicals (brown) on different days.

The main purpose here is to count the events obtained by statistics according to the time of occurrence of seven days a week, and the purpose is to explore the influence of different working days on the regularity of accidents.

(Section 3.1.4)

The number of hazardous chemical casualties and the number of deaths in specific time periods are shown in Figure 4. The abscissa represents the distribution of different time periods of the day (24h).

The ordinate represents the number of deaths of hazardous chemicals (dark yellow) and the number of deaths caused by hazardous chemical deaths (light blue) that occur in different time periods of each day. Here is mainly to count the events obtained by statistics according to their occurrence period (24h).

Point5

Finally, as a more general feedback, my main concern is that most of the analysis is highly inadequate, and the numbers presented without context. Did the authors consider why there would be these types of patterns shown in the figures?

Response 5

This article refers to the official website of the China Chemical Safety Association and the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People's Republic of China on the casualties of hazardous chemicals for selection and analysis. The data sources are reliable and official. Due to space reasons, the article does not list all events. The accident characteristics selected in this article are relatively straightforward, and the relevance of accident characteristics is discussed appropriately in the discussion section.

The reason for choosing different styles of graphic display effects is mainly to show the changing trends of different parameter characteristics. Since the digital information transmitted is different, we have chosen different graphic display effects.

Point 6

Do the patterns displayed by the statistical data have anything to do with periods of work, work culture, production rate, numbers of people employed, etc.? How about frequency and incidence rates of the data? Consideration of these might give more meaningful context on the discussion.

Response 6

The occurrence characteristics of hazardous chemical deaths are absolutely related to working hours, work culture, productivity, and the number of employees. If we consider these factors, we believe that we need to make a quantitative analysis of deaths in a certain company before making comparisons. In addition, since the analysis events we choose are relatively scattered, the characteristics of the events we choose are ambiguous.

Point 7

I'm also highly apprehensive on the statement that "misoperation of personnel, ignorance of safety and ignorance of warnings are the main causes identified for these events". While these are indeed direct causes, identifying root causes of these incidents would be a much more useful outcome - something that a more thorough analysis of the data presented (as well as more thinking of the context of the industry, culture, governance) could have produced.

Response 7

These direct causes are analysed and summarized in the selected 295 hazardous chemical death incidents. These direct causes are also based on China’s national standard GB6441-1986 "Statistics of Casualties of Enterprise Employees", the unsafe behaviour of people is classified into 13 categories. Since human unsafe behaviour is the direct cause of the accident, we have analysed the characteristics of the accident from this aspect. Of course, it needs to be clear that different industries, cultures and safety management methods are the indirect causes of accidents. However, it is difficult to support this because there are no relevant enterprise and national documents in these areas. At the same time, in the accident statistics, these qualitative indicators do not give more information, so this article selects human reasons that are obvious from the accidents. Related narratives have been added in the manuscript.

Reflected in the manuscript

(Section 4)

Human unsafe behaviours are the main cause of accidents. This study refers to na-tional standards and summarizes human unsafe behaviours into 13 categories. Through statistical analysis, it can be known that personnel operating errors, ignoring safety, and ignoring warnings are the main causes of accidents involving hazardous chemicals. Therefore, enterprises should continue to strengthen the construction of safety culture and pay attention to strengthening the safety education of personnel operations. Due to the nature of hazardous chemicals, scenario mode and intelligent safety methods can be used for teaching when conducting safety education. In addition, safety practitioners should also strengthen professional skills training to cultivate their own safety awareness. Since human unsafe behaviour is the direct cause of the accident, we have analysed the characteristics of the accident from this aspect. Of course, it needs to be clear that different industries, cultures and safety management methods are the indirect causes of accidents. How-ever, it is difficult to support this because there are no relevant enterprise and national documents in these areas. At the same time, in the accident statistics, these qualitative in-dictators do not give more information, so this article selects human reasons that are obvious from the accident.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The text fits the scope of Sustainability as a whole. The theme is very interesting and is well addressed by the authors, in particular, the visual component of the paper. The structure of the text is adequate and is what one expects from a serious, rigorous scientific work. The abstract, keywords and introduction are informative. The overview of the relevant literature is very up to date, no doubt, a great plus of the paper. The text is well interspaced with many high quality international journal references with 5 years or less, denoting the authors proficiency about the subject. However, there is a lack of occidental academic literature on the subject, meaning that the authors may be biased toward oriental academic literature and ignoring important statistical analysis of hazardous chemical fatalities from around the world. This issue must be addressed by the authors. Methodologically all procedures are correct, although not particularly sophisticated in statistical terms. The conclusion section, is too short, and must be extended.

Furthermore, the authors must specifically address the questions below:

The lines in figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 should be removed as they are superfluous;
It is essential for the resolution and sharpness of all figures to be improved and at 100% size of the text, they are all fuzzy and some (as figure 5) become unreadable;
The shortcomings of the paper must be highlighted and better addressed;
Future work and research agenda must be addressed;
This portion of the text should be removed, as the authors present no proof for it: “Regarding the new national policies, China still pays great attention to the safety of chemical enterprises, and relevant laws and regulations are constantly updated and issued. This also shows that China is also paying more and more attention to the safety of chemical enterprises. It is believed that through policy constraints, the safety situation of hazardous chemicals in China will be further improved”.

Only after these improvements would I consider the article for publication.

Above you find my initial review. The authors did not perform all the suggested improvements and the justifications presented by the authors are not scientifically acceptable. In fact, they were all ignored and/or dismissed for no attendable reason, in my estimation.

So, once more, I call upon the authors good-will to implement the improvements and changes.

Author Response

Point 1

The overview of the relevant literature is very up to date, no doubt, a great plus of the paper. The text is well interspaced with many high quality international journal references with 5 years or less, denoting the authors proficiency about the subject. However, there is a lack of occidental academic literature on the subject, meaning that the authors may be biased toward oriental academic literature and ignoring important statistical analysis of hazardous chemical fatalities from around the world. This issue must be addressed by the authors.

Response 1

This is indeed a problem that we have overlooked. We lack the discussion of the subject by Western scholars in the references. Therefore, we have added new references [25]-[29]. This opinion is very necessary to improve the quality of the paper.

Point 2

Methodologically all procedures are correct, although not particularly sophisticated in statistical terms. The conclusion section, is too short, and must be extended.

Response 2

This is a problem that we have overlooked, so we have increased the length of the conclusion part to introduce the general point of this paper.

Reflected in the manuscript

Chemicals produced by chemical companies are critical for safeguarding national defense construction and the development of various industries. However, due to their special physical and chemical properties, chemical casualties occur frequently. This paper is based on the selected casualties caused by hazardous chemical accidents from 2015 to 2021, using multiple accident characteristics for cause analysis and statistical analysis. A general conclusion is obtained and corresponding prevention and control measures are proposed. The specific conclusions are as follows:

(1) The number of casualties of hazardous chemicals showed an overall downward trend with the increase in years, and the trend of the number of deaths with casualties was basically similar. From the monthly trend of accident statistics, it can be seen that there are more injuries and deaths of hazardous chemicals in the high temperature season (August), and most of them cause large-scale casualties. Most of them are fire and explosion inci-dents. It can be concluded that fire and explosion incidents have caused many groups. Casualties and injuries.

(2) It can be seen from the change trend of the "week" feature, the largest number of casualties occurred on the working day on Wednesday. This is because Wednesday is in the middle of the weekly production date, and the activity, mental state, and concentration of workers have declined. From the analysis of the change trend of the specific time period, 9:00-11:00 (inclusive) and 15:00-16:00 (inclusive) are the two time periods with the largest number of incidents, and the number of deaths at 22:00 is the largest.

(3) From the analysis of geographical characteristics, it can be seen that the number of hazardous chemical accidents and death tolls in the economically developed coastal provinces in coastal areas is relatively high. In addition, the number of deaths in coastal areas was higher, 692 people were killed, accounting for 52.23% of the total death toll. By geographical area, East China has the largest number of deaths, causing a total of 471 deaths, accounting for about 35.55%.

(4) From the distribution of the types of hazardous chemical accidents, it can be seen that the number of explosion accidents, poisoning, and suffocation accidents is the largest, and the number of other types of casualties and scorching accidents is the least. It can be found from the death toll chart that the explosion accident type has the largest number of deaths.

(5) According to the analysis of the proportion of chemical types in hazardous chem-ical accidents, narcotics, compressed gas and liquefied gas, flammable solids and spon-taneous combustibles, and flammable materials when wet are the types of hazardous chemicals that cause the most accidents of hazardous chemicals.

(6) With reference to the distribution characteristics of the characteristics of the pro-duction link of hazardous chemical casualties, the number of accidents and deaths caused by the production link is the largest (43.9% and 37.2%, respectively). In addition, the accident type with the largest number of accidents in the production process is explo-sion.

(7) Misoperation of personnel, ignorance of safety, and ignorance of warnings are the main causes of casualties of hazardous chemicals.

Point 3

The lines in figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 should be removed as they are superfluous. 

Response 3

We have modified the picture according to your request.

Reflected in the manuscript

Point 4

It is essential for the resolution and sharpness of all figures to be improved and at 100% size of the text, they are all fuzzy and some (as figure 5) become unreadable.

Response 4

We have modified the picture according to your request.

Point 5

This portion of the text should be removed, as the authors present no proof for it: “Regarding the new national policies, China still pays great attention to the safety of chemical enterprises, and relevant laws and regulations are constantly updated and issued. This also shows that China is also paying more and more attention to the safety of chemical enterprises. It is believed that through policy constraints, the safety situation of hazardous chemicals in China will be further improved”.

Response 5

According to your request, the related description has been deleted.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 3

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors have, now, undertook the suggested improvements. In my estimation the article has now enough quality to be publishable by Sustainability.