China witnessed a decline in both the number of industrial
accidents nationwide and the accident death toll in the first 10
months of this year thanks to intensified efforts in improving work
safety, the government said Monday.
From January to October, 419,000 accidents were recorded, down 22.1
percent from the same period last year, and the related death toll
amounted to 79,000 people, down 13.9 percent, said the State
Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).
Coal mines accounted for 1,920 accidents, down 20.2 percent,
with 3,069 deaths involved, down 19 percent.
"The overall situation of work safety remained stable and tended to
improve," said Li Yizhong, head of the administration.
Meanwhile, over the past five months, 4.32 million safety risks
were identified by government inspectors, of which 3.95 million
were properly addressed.
In May, the administration launched a campaign to identify
safety risks in 2.51 million major enterprises in the most
dangerous sectors.
In a signed article released on Monday to mark the five-year
anniversary of the Law of Safety Production, Li noted that China
has scored substantial progress in industrial safety. "An
atmosphere of taking care of lives and paying attention to safety
is building up across the country," he wrote.
He said the leadership of the Communist Party of China has
blended safe production into the scientific outlook on development
and the goal of building harmonious Socialist society.
Twelve regulations have been promulgated to coordinate the
supervision by central and local governments and amidst various
industries. These measures, Li said, have helped get at the root of
the chronic problem of industrial accidents.
SAWS figures showed that China's annual death toll from
accidents has been declining faster over the past five years, from
1.7 percent year-on-year in 2001 to 11.2 percent last year.
The mortality rate for per 100-million-yuan GDP dropped from
1.33 in 2002 to 0.56 in 2006 while that for one-million-ton coal
output fell from 4.94 to 2.04.
But Li maintained that the situations on industrial safety
remained severe as the amount of accidents were still phenomenal.
"Severe accidents still happened from time to time as some local
departments were soft-handed when dealing with malpractice and
closing down illegal production," said Li. "Deep-rooted and
historical problems that constrained the improvement of industrial
safety are yet to be resolved."
He urged relevant departments to keep sober-minded and make
persistent efforts and rise to the arduous task ahead. The director
said that China must uphold the rule of laws and strictly implement
laws to rectify production orders. The public's awareness of safety
production and social responsibility should also be enhanced.
When it comes to severe accidents, work safety supervising
departments should team up with disciplinary and judicial organs to
act in more coordinated manner to crack down on cover-up, lies and
malpractice such as dereliction of duty, power-for-money deals and
the collusion between officials and illegal trade, Li said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2007)
