I'm kind of peeved by how people (me included, I guess) are jumping at the conclusion that the Chinese went cheap on safety. Massive explosions like this happens somewhat frequently in Europe and North America every few years : The AZF factory blast in France has been estimated to be something like 15 to 40 tons of TNT so roughly similar or higher to current numbers published in regards to the Chinese one that just happened. Truth is safety almost always get lax in any kind of complex organisation and that chemicals can be dangerous. I think it's pretty likely that safety standards might be lower in China and in this particular case, but it's still soon to have any conclusive explanations. What's more worrying (but again, just a quick impression, I don't know the city in question or anything) is the apparent proximity of residential area to the industrial one ? Otherwise it's not uncommon that those massive explosions have relatively a "minor" cost in lives, so let's stay hopeful, I guess.
