Only Six Related Laws, but Small Businesses Are a 'Gap'... Safety Blind Spot in Lithium Battery Factories

On the morning of the 25th, cots were being prepared for missing persons at the site of a fire at a primary battery manufacturing factory located in Seosin-myeon, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

On the 24th, a large-scale casualty occurred due to a fire accident at the Arisel lithium primary battery plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, raising concerns that lithium battery factories have long been in a safety blind spot. Although there are six safety and fire prevention-related regulations, they are applied as general chemical plants, and regulations specialized for lithium battery factories are insufficient. In particular, small businesses only conduct self-inspections and report afterward, making it urgent to prepare supplementary measures.

According to related ministries on the 26th, six regulations apply to the safety and fire prevention of battery factories: the Industrial Safety and Health Act, the Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (Chemical Control Act), the Chemical Substances Control Act, the Firefighting Facilities Act, the Act on Fire Prevention and Safety Management (Fire Prevention Act), and the Hazardous Materials Safety Control Act. The respective overseeing ministries are the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Ministry of Environment, and the National Fire Agency. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the main ministry for the battery industry, does not impose separate safety regulations as it is an industrial promotion ministry.

The most notable issue related to the recent Arisel fire is whether there was a violation of the Industrial Safety and Health Act. Under this act, lithium is classified as a "hazardous substance." Employers must take appropriate protective measures to prevent explosions, fires, and leaks when manufacturing or handling hazardous substances and must not engage in hazardous acts.

Additionally, workplaces manufacturing or handling hazardous substances such as lithium are required to install at least one emergency exit besides the main entrance. Employers must store lithium, classified as a hazardous substance, in a separate location outside the workplace and keep only the necessary amount inside the workplace. The Ministry of Employment and Labor’s investigation into violations of the Industrial Safety and Health Act and the Serious Accident Punishment Act regarding this accident is based on these regulations.

However, the factory is exempt from Ministry of Environment regulations. Under the Chemical Control Act, lithium is classified as a general chemical substance rather than a hazardous chemical substance. If classified as a hazardous chemical substance, special management is required during storage and transportation under the Chemical Substances Control Act. A Ministry of Environment official explained, "The Ministry of Environment’s regulations apply to raw materials, making it difficult to apply them to finished products such as batteries."

Regarding fire, the factory is directly subject to the Firefighting Facilities Act, Fire Prevention Act, and Hazardous Materials Safety Control Act, but there are no separate regulations specifically for lithium battery factories. In the case of lithium, existing powder and smothering extinguishers are ineffective in extinguishing fires. However, current firefighting laws do not classify metal fires as a separate fire type, nor have they established safety technical standards for extinguishing equipment.

Under the Firefighting Facilities Act, fires are classified only as ordinary fires (Class A), oil fires (Class B), electrical fires (Class C), and kitchen fires (Class K), with extinguisher (agent) standards specified for each type. Consequently, there are calls for facility standards for "metal fires (Class D)" such as lithium battery fires. A National Fire Agency official stated, "Globally, there is no extinguishing agent applicable to lithium batteries," adding, "D-class extinguishers applicable to metal fires need to be separately developed as products specialized for lithium."

Under the Hazardous Materials Safety Control Act, lithium metal itself is classified as "Class 3 hazardous material," but finished lithium batteries are not. If classified as hazardous materials, a designated quantity cannot be stored in one place. It is analyzed that the damage was exacerbated because 35,000 lithium batteries were stored together on the second floor of the Arisel factory.

Large and medium-sized companies have their own safety regulations to prevent fires, but small businesses remain in a management blind spot. On the 25th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, together with the National Fire Agency, conducted an on-site inspection of Bitsrocell’s Dangjin plant, a leading domestic lithium primary battery company. An official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, "Bitsrocell, which had experienced a fire in the past, was overly attentive to fire prevention, but small-scale businesses seem unable to do so." Arisel’s sales last year were 4.8 billion KRW.

Small businesses with a total floor area of less than 30,000 square meters conduct self-fire inspections and then notify the fire authorities. Arisel, where the accident occurred, has only 2,300 square meters of total floor area and was excluded from the fire authorities’ priority management targets. A Ministry of Employment and Labor official said, "Industrial safety supervisors manage and supervise compliance with safety rules, but realistically, it is impossible to inspect all workplaces nationwide."

After this accident, the government formed a task force (TF) to prepare follow-up measures. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that it will conduct intensive inspections of lithium battery industry sites through the "Battery Industry Field Safety Inspection TF." An official from the ministry said, "If additional regulations are implemented, it could burden companies," adding, "We will first check the status of safety facilities at lithium battery factories and then review detailed measures."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.