(This is a sample cover image for this issue. The actual cover is not yet available at this time.)
This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier’s archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/copyright Author's personal copy
Safety Science 51 (2013) 217–222
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Safety Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ssci
Focusing on coal miners’ occupational disease issues: A comparative analysis between China and the United States ⇑ Hong Chen , Qun Feng, Ruyin Long, Hui Qi
School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, PR China article info abstract
Article history: The trend in Chinese coal miners’ occupational diseases in the last ten years was studied by comparison Received 14 November 2011 with US reference data. It showed that the legally recorded occupational diseases of American coal miners Received in revised form 12 May 2012 had a wider range than that of China. Even so, the total number of occupational diseases and the number Accepted 30 June 2012 of occupational diseases per million tons of coal produced in Chinese coal mines were 32.9, 18.3 times higher than those in the US. In addition, the number of cases of coal miners’ occupational disease was, on average, 54.08% of the total number of cases in industry as a whole, which was 12.6 times more than Keywords: that in the US. The occupational disease rate per thousand coal miners in China recently increased, and Occupational diseases reached a new peak in 2010, while showing a downward trend in the US. Pneumoconiosis was the main Chinese coal miner Ten-year tendency occupational disease of Chinese coal miners with over 75%. In 2008, 2009, and 2010, the number of coal The occupational disease rate per million miners suffering from pneumoconiosis reached 4311, 5997 and 12,208, respectively, and accounted for tons 78.79%, 79.95% and 87.41% of the total occupational diseases, respectively. Compared to the US, Chinese The occupational disease rate per thousand coal miners were in a much worse occupational disease status. Based on US experience, some improve- coal miners ment strategies were proposed. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction rapid economic development in China, many workers still work in very tough environments and have high labour intensity Coal is an important component of world energy supply, and ac- (Hämäläinen et al., 2006). Besides, the legitimate rights and inter- counts for 29.25% of the world’s primary energy consumption. Coal ests of coal miners who suffer from occupational disease are not production is greatly influenced by geological conditions and guaranteed. Chinese coal miners’ occupational diseases are a seri- disasters. The production conditions are tough, and there is a high ous issue. Occupational diseases seriously damage coal miners’ rate of both accidents and occupational injuries. Globally, 1000 lives, health, and restrict the healthy development of coal industry. workers lost their lives and about 960,000 workers got hurt in However, in other important coal producing countries, such as 2003 by workplace accidents (Hämäläinen et al., 2009). In China, the US, Australia, and South Africa, the coal industry is no longer coal has an important position in the national economic develop- included in the high-risk categories. Taking the US as an example, ment, and since 2005, coal contributed more than 70% of the pri- according to statistical data the percentage of coal mine accidents mary energy consumption (NBSC, 2011). There are more than in America is only 4% of the total industrial accidents, ranked as 15,000 coal mines and 5.5 million coal miners in China. The Chi- 6th, while that of the retail industry is 5.6%. The number of coal nese coal miners’ accident mortality accounts for 70% of the global miners’ occupational diseases has been less than 200 for the past coal miners’ deaths. So far coal mines’ accidents in China have at- six years. Occupational health issues have been brought into the tracted much attention in society, but little attention has been paid basic worker rights protections. to the current high risk status of Chinese coal miners’ occupational The protection of workers’ lives and health is an important sign diseases. Similarly, occupational injuries issue has been discussed of progress and civilisation of a country. The US is not only the sec- in some literatures (Pavlic et al., 2011, 2012), while few researches ond largest coal producing country but also a country with sound focusing on occupational diseases issue specially. occupational safety management systems and mature coal safety In China, more than 2.65 million coal miners work within dusty management experience, which is typically representative and atmospheres, and more than 6000 workers die of pneumoconiosis worth using as reference. The paper takes the US as a basis for com- every year (Zheng, 2010). Behind the rapid development of China’s parison to discuss occupational disease issues of coal miners. It will economy, the cost to coal miners’ lives and health is huge. With help to highlight the coal miners’ occupational disease status in China, and to obtain useful experience from the US. Based on statistical data on occupational diseases from 2001 to ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 13372210769; fax: +86 51683884573. E-mail address: [email protected] (H. Chen). 2010, for both China and the US, the research selectively analysed
0925-7535/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2012.06.025 Author's personal copy
218 H. Chen et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 217–222
Table 1 Occupational diseases case load each year and the percentage of coal miners case load from 2001 to 2010.
Year US China The number of coal Total number of The percentagea The number of coal Total number of The miners’ occupational occupational miners’ occupational occupational percentagea diseases cases diseases cases diseases cases diseases cases 2001 424 5915 7.16 8403 13218 63.57 2002 431 5534 7.78 10483 14821 70.73 2003 323 5575 5.79 6138 10467 58.64 2004 232 5764 4.02 4840 9308 52.00 2005 171 5734 2.98 7348 12212 60.17 2006 137 5840 2.34 6451 11519 56.00 2007 152 5657 2.68 6751 14296 47.22 2008 151 5214 2.89 5472 13744 39.81 2009 155 4551 3.40 7501 18128 41.38 2010 172 4340 3.96 13966 27240 51.27
a Note: The percentage = the number of coal miners occupational diseases cases/the number of all the occupational diseases cases. the trends in occupational diseases case load, occupational disease 16000 rates per million tons and per thousand coal miners, main types of 13966 14000 occupational diseases and injury features, and then related 12000 improvement strategies were proposed. In the paper, the datasets 10483 10000 from China were carefully collected from the government websites 7348 8000 6751 of the Chinese Ministry of Health (CMH) and National Bureau of 8403 6138 7501 6000 6451 Statistics of China (NBSC). The datasets from the US were collected 4840 5472 from the websites of Mine Safety and Health Administration 4000 (MSHA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration 2000 424 431 323 232 171 137 152 151 155 172 (OSHA). More attention was paid to the reliability of the data 0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 source and the integrity and comparability of the data when they were extracted. number of American coal miners’ occupational diseases cases number of Chinese coal miners’ occupational diseases cases 2. Comparative analysis of China–US coal miners’ occupational Fig. 1. Ten-year tendency of the case load of coal miners’ occupational diseases in diseases China and the US.
2.1. Comparative analysis of the occupational diseases case load tendency in 2001–2010 occupational diseases high, but also little attention is paid to it in management practice. The occupational disease cases show a trend From 2001 to 2010, the occupational diseases caseload for each of ‘‘quantity enlarging’’. year, and the percentage of coal miners’ case load, both in China Third, in China, the number of coal miners’ occupational dis- and the US1 are shown in Table 1. eases represented 54.08% of the total number of occupational dis- First, the number of Chinese coal miners’ occupational disease eases in all industries, on average, which was 12.6 times more than cases was 32.9 times more than that of the US, on average, from that of the US. The number was also the highest of all the indus- 2001 to 2010. After 2005, the number in the US was less than tries. Chinese coal miners have been at the absolute greatest risk 200 each year, while the number in China was much larger, even of occupational diseases. After a stable stage with a slight decline 81 times more than that of the US in 2010. from 2001 to 2007, it showed an obvious upward trend from Second, the caseload tendency also shows different features. It 2008 to 2010, with percentages of 39.81%, 41.38% and 51.27%, is shown in Fig. 1. respectively. From 2001 to 2010, the number of American coal miners’ occu- pational diseases was decreasing steadily. Compared to the US, 2.2. Ten-year tendency of the occupational disease rate: per million China had a wider range of fluctuation, which can be divided tons and per thousand coal miners approximately into three stages: stable stage with a slight decline, from 2001 to 2004; maintenance stage from 2005 to 2007; and Analysing the data from coal miners and coal production (Table rapidly increasing stage from 2008 to 2010. Especially in 2010, 2), we can obtain the trend features of the occupational disease the number increased significantly, reaching a peak after 10 years. rate per million tons of coal produced and the occupational disease It shows that not only is the absolute case number of coal miners’ rate per thousand coal miners. The occupational disease rate per million tons refers to the 1 In 2002, the 108th document ‘‘Catalogue of occupational diseases’’ issued by the number of coal miners who suffer from occupational diseases Ministry of health of China divided occupational diseases into ten categories, which when one million tons of coal is produced; the occupational dis- were further broken down into 115 elements, including pneumoconiosis, occupa- ease rate per thousand coal miners refers to the number of coal tional poisoning, occupational diseases caused by physical environment, occupational skin diseases, occupational eye, nose, throat diseases, occupational deaf disease, etc. miners who suffer from occupational diseases in every thousand ‘‘Occupational injury and diseases classification manual’’, which was issued by US. workers. It is shown in Table 3. Ministry of Labour in September, 2010, defined occupational diseases as any China’s occupational disease rate per million tons was 18.3 abnormal condition or disorder caused by exposure to factors associated with times more than that of the US, on average, from 2001 to 2010, employment, and it includes lung diseases (such as black lung or coal workers’ even 24 times in 2010. On average, for every one million tons of pneumoconiosis), skin diseases (such as Urticaria, Dermatitis), airway diseases (such as Byssinosis), other chronic conditions, acute injury by inhalation or dermal coal produced, 3.9 coal miners suffered from occupational diseases, absorption and so on. measured over the past ten years, while this number in the US was Author's personal copy
H. Chen et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 217–222 219
Table 2 Coal miners and coal production in China and the US.
Items Year Country 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Number of coal miners (ten thousand) China 561 558 488.3 500.7 509.2 529.7 535.0 540.4 553.7 550 US 9.27 8.98 8.45 8.82 9.47 9.98 9.96 11.01 – – Coal production (billion tons) China 1.11 1.42 1.608 1.956 2.11 2.326 2.536 2.716 2.91 3.2 US 1.13 1.096 1.072 1.112 1.135 1.164 1.147 1.173 0.973 0.985
Note: The data are from website of National Bureau of Statistics of China, and MSHA.
Table 3 China–US occupational diseases rate per million tons and occupational diseases rate per thousand coal miners.
Year Occupational diseases rate per million tons Occupational diseases rate per thousand coal miners China US China US 2001 7.5703 0.3752 1.4978 4.5739 2002 7.3824 0.3932 1.8786 4.7996 2003 3.8172 0.3013 1.2570 3.8225 2004 2.4744 0.2086 0.9666 2.6304 2005 3.4825 0.1507 1.4430 1.8057 2006 2.7734 0.1177 1.2178 1.3727 2007 2.6621 0.1325 1.2618 1.5261 2008 2.0147 0.1287 1.0125 1.3715 2009 2.5777 0.1593 1.3547 – 2010 4.3644 0.1746 2.5392 –
8 6 7.38 4.57 7 7.57 5 4.80 6 4 3.82 3 2.54 5 4.36 2.63 1.81 3.82 3.48 2 1.37 1.53 1.37 4 1.88 2.47 1 1.50 1.44 1.35 3 2.66 1.26 0.97 1.22 1.26 1.01 2.01 0 2 2.77 2.58 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 0.38 0.39 1 0.30 American occupational diseases rate per thousand coal miners 0.21 0.15 0.12 0.13 0.13 0.16 0.17 0 Chinese occupational diseases rate per thousand coal miners 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Fig. 3. Tendency of the occupational disease rate per thousand coal miners in China American occupational diseases rate per million tons and the US. Chinese occupational diseases rate per million tons
Fig. 2. Tendency of the occupational disease rate per million tons in China and the Second, the Chinese caseload was absolutely more than that of US. the US, while the occupational disease rate per thousand Chinese coal miners was lower than that of the US. The higher occupational diseases rate per thousand coal miners in the US might be due to 0.2. It is clear that behind the fast development of the Chinese the wider statistical range of occupational disease and fewer coal economy there is a huge cost to coal miners’ lives and health. miners. With the continuous improvement of occupational health With regard to the occupational disease rate per thousand coal management, the occupational disease rate per thousand coal min- miners, because of the large number of Chinese coal miners, nearly ers in the US showed a lasting downtrend, while the rate in China 60 times more than that of the US, and the wider statistical range showed an uptrend that reached a peak in 2010. of occupational diseases in the US, China had a lower number than the US. It was basically equal to the US since 2005. Figs. 2 and 3 show the tendency of the occupational disease rate 2.3. Main types of occupational diseases and injury features per million tons and the occupational disease rate per thousand coal miners in China and the US. According to the statistical data published by the Ministry of Several conclusions can be drawn from Figs. 2 and 3: Health of China, the fatality rate of pneumoconiosis was 20%, First, for China, the occupational disease rate per million tons which was considered the key factor in occupational hazards. In showed a declining trend from 2001 to 2008, and then rose again China, pneumoconiosis accounted for greater than 75% of all types from 2009, reaching 4.36 in 2010. The data from the US had a smal- of occupational diseases (shown in Table 4). The pneumoconiosis ler fluctuation, and were below 0.2 since 2005, which shows the caseload was 4311, 5997, and 12208 in 2008, 2009, 2010, respec- maturity and stability of the occupation disease prevention poli- tively, correspondingly taking 78.79%, 79.95%, 87.41% of all the cies, and the steadiness of the management practice in the US. In occupational diseases cases. Obviously, pneumoconiosis is the contrast, the data for China show obvious fluctuation with three most severe occupational disease for Chinese coal miners. It is peaks in ten years. Even in 2010, a peak appeared that shows the increasing year by year. defects of occupational disease prevention systems and mecha- Compared with China, legally recorded occupational disease nisms, as well as instability of management practice. statistics is broader in the US. Some occupational disease catego- Author's personal copy
220 H. Chen et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 217–222
Table 4 The number and percentage of main types of occupational diseases in Chinese coal mines.
Year Pneumoconiosis Chronic occupational poisoning Acute occupational poisoning Other Number Percentage Number Percentage Number Percentage Number Percentage 2001 6678 79.47 741 8.82 140 1.67 844 10.04 2002 8659 82.60 923 8.80 419 4.00 482 4.60 2003 4905 79.91 550 8.96 295 4.81 388 6.32 2004 3459 71.47 521 10.76 313 6.46 547 11.31 2005 5519 75.11 830 11.29 368 5.01 631 8.59 2006 4919 76.25 606 9.40 261 4.05 664 10.30 2007 5177 76.69 773 11.45 325 4.81 476 7.05 2008 4311 78.79 466 8.52 286 5.22 409 7.47 2009 5997 79.95 791 10.54 228 3.04 485 6.47 2010 12208 87.41 726 5.20 316 2.26 714 5.11
Note: ‘‘Other’’ refers to occupational diseases caused by physical environment, occupational skin disease, occupational eye, nose, throat diseases, occupational deaf disease, etc.
accordance with the US criterion, the occupational disease Dermatitis, Other Hearing loss or cases will be much more and the occupational disease status 1, 1% Occupational impairment, will be more severe. diseases, NEC, 24, 16% 25, 17% 3. Improvement strategy: based on the experience of the US Heat stroke, sunstroke, heat 3.1. To accelerate technological progress, promote coal mines cramps, etc., reorganisation, and optimise energy structure 1, 1% Black lung (coal Joint, tendon, or Coal production efficiency differs significantly between China workers' muscle and the US. As shown in Table 2 and Table 5, the number of Chinese pneumoconiosis) inflammation or coal mines and the number of employees were nearly 10 times and , 40, 26% irritation, 60 times more than those of the US, respectively, while the coal 60, 39% production in China was only 3 times more than that of the US. Thus, Chinese coal production efficiency was much lower than Fig. 4. Types and percentage of American coal miners’ occupational disease cases in the US. 2008. Great differences exist between China and the US from a tech- nological aspect. A report from the National Mining Association pointed out that new technology has contributed to coal mines’ ries, which are not recorded in China, are included in the US. safety in the US from several aspects: first, information technology Although the US has a stricter definition than China, its total num- enhanced the scheduled level of coal production and the predict- ber of occupational disease cases was fewer. For example, accord- ability of potential safety hazards. Computer simulation, virtual ing to statistics from MSHA, there were 151 occupational disease reality and other new technologies reduced coal mine accidents cases in American mines in 2008, including 1 case of dermatitis, and helped to make rescue plans. Second, mechanization and auto- 24 cases of hearing loss or impairment, 1 case of heat stroke, 60 mation in mining has improved work efficiency, reduced the num- cases of joint, tendon, or muscle inflammation or irritation, 40 ber of coal miners working in underground mines and has cases of black lung (coal workers’ pneumoconiosis) and 25 cases therefore reduced the number of coal miners in dangerous condi- of other diseases. The specific are shown in Fig. 4. tions. Third, safer long wall mining was used to replace traditional As Table 4 and Fig. 4 shows, the main types and injury features mining techniques. Fourth, the US government promoted the use of coal miners’ occupational diseases in China and the US are as of a new ventilation system, tunnel strengthening materials and follows: electrical equipment to improve safety. Besides, employee safety is the highest priority in the US mining industry. Advanced tech- (1) Pneumoconiosis was the main type of Chinese coal miners’ nology, greater emphasis on coal miners’ training and safety occupational disease, which was demonstrated by 6246 awareness, and regulatory efforts by state mine safety agencies cases per year, on average, in the latest ten years, and have contributed to steady improvements in mine safety through- 12,208 cases in 2010. In the US, joint, tendon, or muscle out US mines (NMA, 2010). For China, use of information technol- inflammation or irritation accounted for 39% of the total, ogy and mechanization are not utilised enough, and most of the with 26% of the total consisting of black lung (coal workers’ coal mines encounter severe geological conditions, so the probabil- pneumoconiosis) with only dozens of cases reported. ity of occupational diseases and accidents increases significantly. (2) The fatality rate of pneumoconiosis far exceeded that of Therefore, the Chinese government should pay more attention to joint, tendon, or muscle inflammation or irritation, so Chi- effective supervision, promote the technological progress of coal nese coal miners suffered more severe occupational diseases mines, accelerate technological innovation, improve the levels of than the US miners. It produced huge threats to coal miners’ mechanization and the use of information technology, and reduce physical and psychological health. the numbers of underground miners as far as possible. (3) Some diseases are not effectively included in the Chinese From the perspective of energy structure, we can see that due to occupational disease list, such as joint, tendon, or muscle the restrictions in energy structure, China’s coal consumption is inflammation or irritation. However, there were so many the highest in the world. For instance, in 2009, Chinese coal con- similar disease cases in China coal mines. These have not sumption accounted for 46.9% of the whole world’s coal consump- yet attracted sufficient attention. If China collected data in tion. In the US, coal consumption accounted for 22% of energy Author's personal copy
H. Chen et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 217–222 221
Table 5 The number of coal mines in China and the US.
Year Country 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 China 153723 – – 25000 24800 17000 20000 17352 14423 15000 The US 1714 1632 1526 1586 1643 1675 1605 1714 – –
Note: – Represents data not available. consumption, while the percentage in China rose from 68.3% to ers, there are significant deficiencies in the system. By contrast, the 70.4% in 2000–2009. The US has a more reasonable energy struc- rights and interests of American coal miners are fully guaranteed ture than China, although oil consumption accounts for 37%. because of reasonable institutional arrangements. The miners can Nowadays, China is implementing reorganisation in coal mines enjoy 10 public holidays and 3 weeks’ extra paid leave every year. to reduce unsafe small coal mines, and as a way to improve pro- Meanwhile the US values the prevention of occupational hazards duction efficiency and control the upward trend of occupational very much. In a study, Loeppke found that the cost of health-re- disease cases. Furthermore, China should actively develop new en- lated productivity in the US were four times higher than the med- ergy options, optimise energy structures, limit over dependence on ical costs (Loeppke et al., 2007; Miller and Haslam, 2009). coal in the national economy, and close the mines with complex Besides the low wage and lack of labour rights, the working hazardous geological conditions, frequent disasters, and rough environment in Chinese coal mines is very tough. Coal dust, noisy, working environments. This is necessary for the control of mine wet and hot working conditions can damage coal miners’ health. accidents and occupational diseases, as well as necessary for the Considering the economic targets, coal mining enterprises are usu- sustainable development of economy and society. ally unwilling to improve working conditions without enforcement of compulsory policies. 3.2. To set up an independent file management organisation for It is obvious that the economy and labour rights of Chinese coal recording occupational health of coal miners miners are not taken seriously. China should strengthen the system of construction labour protection in tough industry, to solve the At present, new trends are appearing in the coal miners’ occupational diseases problem. employment. Coal miners tend to change employer more fre- quently, so incomplete health records cause statistical information 3.4. To establish a complete and efficient service system for to be missing and therefore there are delays in the treatment of occupational disease identification and compensation workers’ occupational diseases. In 2002, China published ‘‘Manage- ment Method of Occupational Health Guardianship’’, in which coal In the US, diagnosis and treatment of occupational diseases are mining enterprises were forced to conduct physical examination of included in the workers’ health insurance system. The complete workers, and keep occupational health files (CMH, 2002). However, system of medical insurance and administrative justice creates frequent turnover of coal miners prevents the enterprises from favourable conditions for workers’ occupational diseases identifi- keeping workers’ files long term, which is obviously disadvanta- cation. Workers may choose any general practitioner or family geous for prevention of coal miners’ occupational diseases. There- physician to identify occupational diseases, and accept the supervi- fore, China should set up an independent file management sion and arbitration of the government labour and judicial depart- organisation for coal miners, so as to enable the long-term tracking ment. Safety management systems include not only the workers management of coal miners’ occupational diseases. themselves, but also the work environment and the surrounding community (Robson et al., 2007; Papadopoulos and Georgiadou, 3.3. To think highly of economy and labour rights of coal miners 2010; Guldenmund, 2007). In the United States, each state has a number of service centres for workers’ occupational disease com- The Chinese coal mine industry has tough production condi- pensation. For example, in California alone, there are as many as tions while the income of coal miners is relatively low. In 2008, 30 compensation service centres specifically for work-related inju- the annual average wage of Chinese coal miners were $4827.88, ries and occupational disease victims. which was lower than $5608.22 average for electric, gas, or the Occupational disease identification in China is only taken by lo- water supply industry, similar with $4665.53 average for transpor- cal occupation disease prevention and treatment centres. There are tation industry, and just 5.9% more than the industry average of about 10 qualified occupation disease prevention and treatment $4558.74 (NBSC, 2011). According to statistics produced by the centres in every province, on average. However, the large number Ministry of Labour in the US, coal miners’ wages were significantly of services makes it very difficult for occupational disease identifi- higher than the industry average. For example, in 2008, the annual cation in China. For example, Liaoning province is one of the average wages of American coal miners were $59280, which was important industrial provinces in China, and there are 12 occupa- about 87.5% higher than $31616, the industry average. tional disease prevention and treatment centres in this province, In China, working in coal mines means high safety risk and high which is equal to 0.86 centres in each city. However, only in Fush- labour intensity. A survey into the labour intensity of workers in un City, nearly 100 thousand people are directly engaged in haz- nationwide coal mines by All China Federation of Trade Unions ardous industries, including 34781 coal workers. It is really a (ACFTU) showed that ‘‘three shifts’’ was used in 86% of coal mines. heavy work load. Considering the addition of auxiliary preparation time, the actual In addition, occupational disease identification in China takes working time per shift reached 10 to 12 hours (CNCA, 2010). the ‘‘who advocates, who proof’’ rule, which also causes difficulties Long-term heavy work inevitably damages coal miners’ health. to coal miners in protecting their own interests. According to the Most coal mines in China take a piece-rate system, so for greater 11th stipulation of China ‘‘management rules of occupational dis- income, the workers have to give up holidays, simplify or omit nec- ease diagnosis and identification’’ which was implemented in essary procedures, ignore labour protection, and so on, which in- 2002, when applying for the diagnosis of occupational disease, creases the possibility of occupational diseases. Thus, in workers should provide materials including their occupational his- protecting the economy and the labour rights of Chinese coal min- tory and past disease history; a copy of occupational health record Author's personal copy
222 H. Chen et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 217–222
file; occupational health inspection results; evaluation information injury to Chinese coal miners’ physical and psychological of occupational hazards in the workplace over the years and other health by occupational disease was much more serious relevant materials. In fact, about 80% of Chinese coal miners are than that in the US. from the countryside with a relatively low educational back- China should accelerate technological progress, impel coal ground, and most of the labour contracts between coal miners mines to reorganise, optimise energy structure, and limit and coal mines are irregular and relevant materials are not com- over dependence on coal in the national economy. plete. When occupational injury occurs, it is difficult for these min- An independent organisation for managing occupational ers to complete the occupational identification process themselves. health records should be set up. The economy and labour In 2007, Zhang Haichao cut open his lung to confirm his occupa- rights of coal miners should be highly respected. Further, tional disease. It reflected the helplessness of the group seriously in- a complete and efficient service system for occupational jured by occupational diseases, and revealed the problems of the disease identification and compensation is needed. current Chinese occupational disease identification and compensa- tion system. It is imperative to establish a complete and efficient occupational disease and compensation service system for China. Acknowledgements
3.5. To enhance coal miners’ occupational disease prevention We thank Natural Science Foundation of China Project (70671 consciousness 101, 71173217) for financial support. We thank China Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Research into fatal accidents in Chinese coal mines during Science Project (10YJA630010, 11YJ630162) for financial support. 1980-2000 showed that the human factor was the key direct rea- son, accounting for 97.67% of total accidents (Chen, 2006). It is References common for coal miners to break rules or get out of line when they work, and coal managers often ignore regulations to get more out- Chen, H., 2006. Research on the unsafe behaviors in China coal mine accidents. Science press, Beijing (in Chinese). put. Occupational disease caused by insufficient prevention con- CMH, 2002. Management method of occupational health guardianship.