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I recently spoke to a Chinese friend who, because of the onset of Swine Flu, was considering canceling her trip to visit friends in South Africa. I mentioned to her that I did not think there had been too many cases South Africa (I wasn’t sure if there had even been any). She then told me that it was not actually South Africa that was the problem. Her concern was that she needed to change flights in Hong Kong and that there had been some confirmed cases in the SAR. To be honest, I thought she was somewhat overreacting. However, I understood her desire to feel safe. The disparity between the concern she was showing and the actual risk involved got me thinking about major issue in the Chinese workplace where risks seem a lot higher and concerns a little lower – environmental health and safety. Whilst swine flu may be capturing the national headlines right now, EHS actually affects far more lives. Last year, according to the State Administration of Work and Safety, there were 413,700 workplace accidents across China, which included a staggering 91,000 fatalities. (As a footnote to this statistic we must remember that these are accidents that are reported to the authorities; it is likely others slipped through the net). The industry contributing most fatalities to these statistics is China’s oft-decried mining sector, where safety breaches have been commonplace for many years. Over 3,200 miners lost their lives in China in 2008. If we contrast those numbers with the US, we see a pretty heavy disparity, with only 29 deaths in the US. Not only is China ahead in terms of pure quantity, it also takes the lead in deaths per million tons of coal produced. And, this lead is not a slender one. China’s death rate is 37 times higher than America’s. Many of the problems within China’s mining industry are put down to the illegal and unscrupulous practices of mine owners. Zhao Tiechui, who oversees mining for SAWS, recently told China Daily that up to 80% of China’s 16,000 coal mines are operating illegally. He believes that this is the major reason behind the industry’s appalling safety record. He explained that, in 2008, illegal mines accounted for 35% of the nation’s coal output, were responsible for 73% of the fatalities, “Coal mines often experience the most serious accidents because so many of them are operating illegally. The industry also sees the most frequent covering-up of accidents." Even though mining is the largest EHD culprit, 91,000 deaths show that other industries are not far behind. As chilling as China’s workplace statistics are, they actually represent a continued improvement on safety in at work. 2008’s figure of 413,000 workplace accidents is down from 506,000 in 2007, whilst the fatality rate has dropped below 100,000 for the first time in a decade. So, what are the reasons behind this improvement? The first reason is that the government and major businesses are now starting to place added emphasis on the safety of employees. Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang recently urged companies and local government authorities to improve safety management, offer safety training and utilize new technology to help safeguard the safety of employees. Photo: Peter Van den Bossche We are high quality suppliers, our products such as GSN Ferro Alloys , China Ferro Silicon Barium for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Ferro Silicon Barium.
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