| Date: |
27 April 20067 |
| Areas of work: |
Occupational safety and health |
| Region/Country: |
China |
| Organized by: |
ILO / SAWS (State Administration of Work Safety) |
| Contact: |
Mr. Zhu Changyou, Programme Officer |
Senior government representatives, employers' organizations, workers' representatives and the WHO gathered today with the ILO and SAWS to discuss the progresses and challenges of promoting safe and healthy workplaces for Chinese workers. All participants congratulated China on the ratification this year of the ILO Convention No. 155 on Occupational Safety and Health, one of the core safety and health conventions. In her speech, the director of the ILO Ms.Constance Thomas welcomed that China had chosen to use today's event to focus on the mining industry.
“In China, we recognize that some progress has been made – but the figures on fatalities, injuries and diseases are still too high in terms of human life, cost, and sacrifice”. Ms. Thomas also pointed out that coordination and cooperation are essential to the development of occupational safety and health.
New research was presented that further stressed the grave situation for those working in China’s mines. By the year 2005, over 600, 000 cases of the deadly lung disease Pneumoconiosis was reported, killing 140,000 people. Pneumoconiosis patients account for about 80 per cent of all kinds of occupational diseases in China, hitting the migrant working population the hardest.
But a commitment to improve safety and health can make a difference. During the event, the Tunlan Coal Mine demonstrated the positive effects of working in a systematic way with occupational safety and health issues. Its efforts to report work hazards, regularly do physical checkups of their workers and improving air quality in the mine, has resulted in both better production and zero fatalities last year, their chief engineer Mr. Song Youtang proudly pointed out. All China Federation Trade Union (ACFTU) added that workers are becoming increasingly aware of safety issues. Last year the ACFTU received an all time high number of 300 reports from workers themselves, identifying hazards at their workplace.
To increase the possibility to monitor what progress is being made, the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) is planning to establish a statistic system on occupational safety and health and to publicize the results regularly.
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