The State Council has passed new safety regulations for the fireworks industry as manufacturers ramp up production for Lunar New Year.
At a State Council meeting on Thursday chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao , members endorsed a timetable for manufacturers to comply with safety standards, the People's Daily said yesterday.
Under the regulation, manufacturers who fail to meet the standards will be shut down by the end of March.
Factories are required to mechanise all manual labour to reduce the chance of injuries to workers, and all family workshops are banned.
The notice said the lighting of fireworks led to 10 major accidents and killed 37 people throughout the country in the first 10 months of last year. A further nine incidents involving illegal production killed 34 people in the same period.
Zhang Liwei , from Hebei's Anping Fireworks Factory, which mainly exports to the US, Japan and Europe, said he expected some plants to shut under the new regulations.
