New Standard to Curb Increase of Workplace Injuries, Diseases

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 20, 2001

New Standard to Curb Increase of Workplace Injuries, Diseases

A new national standard for occupational health and safety management systems is to be implemented at the beginning of next year in a bid to curb the increase in workplace injuries and occupational diseases. The new standard will be effective in making enterprises aware of health and safety and maintaining their awareness, said Shi Baoquan, deputy administrator of the State Administration for Standardization.

The new specification was issued by the administration and the China National Regulatory Commission for Certification and Accreditation.

Enterprises Encouraged to Follow the Standard

All enterprises will be encouraged to follow the standard, especially those whose employees are more exposed to noxious chemicals, noise, dust or other pollution, or companies where work conditions are very dangerous and industrial accidents on the rise.

Statistics on Occupational Health Hazards

The reported number of people who have died in industrial accidents has increased every year since the beginning of the 1990s.

More than 500,000 industrial plants and mines have occupational health hazards, and over 25 million employees are exposed to dust, noise or toxic chemicals.

In 2000, nearly 12,000 cases of workplace disease were reported, including the lung disease pneumoconiosis, which is caused by inhaling dust or small particles.

This was an increase of 14.5 percent over 1999. Pneumoconiosis patients accounted for more than 77 percent of all the cases, according to the Ministry of Health.

The financial cost of work-related accidents and occupational diseases comes to around 10 billion yuan (1.2 billion US dollars) a year and the figure has been on the increase in the last few years.

List of Occupational Health Problems in China

The official list of verified occupational diseases includes:

I. Occupational poisonings

2. Pneumoconiosis

3. Physical agent-induced occupational diseases

4.Occupational communicable diseases

5. Occupational dermatoses

6. Occupational eye diseases

7. Occupational ear, nose and throat diseases

8.Occupational tumours

Government's Efforts

By the late 1970s, following China 's economic reform and opening policy, structures and activities of occupational health were further developed to include identification, evaluation, prevention and control of occupational hazards at work in the same way as they have been adopted in most of the industrialized countries.

Beijing: Strengthening policies and legislation

The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau has decided to strengthen and broaden the monitoring and prevention of occupational diseases. Strengthens Monitoring of Occupational Diseases.

Shanghai:: a comprehensive regulation on the "Occupational Diseases Control Act" was adopted by the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress in 1996, which is a great step forward in the legislative containment of occupational diseases. The existing national policies and regulations on occupational health and safety will be further enforced through implementation of the local Act.

Beijing Strengthens Monitoring of Occupational Diseases

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