Frequent fatal mine accidents occurring in China this year have exposed serious safety issues. Official government statistics show that there were 6,702 deaths in mining accidents in 2003 in China. That is 80 percent of the total number of accidental deaths for this type of work in the entire world.

From 2001 to October 2004, there were 188 large-scale accidents (more than 10 deaths at each accident) in Chinese mines, an average of one large accident every 7.4 days. There were also 28 extreme accidents that caused more than 30 deaths at each accident, averaging one extreme accident every 50 days. Recently, four extreme accidents occurred back to back, notably one in the Zhengmei group’s Daping Mine.

On October 20, the Daping Mine in Henan province had a sudden natural gas emission. 147 of the 446 people working in the mine were killed, 298 managed to escape and one is still missing. On November 11, a mining accident occurred in the city of Pingdingshan in Henan province. Thirty-three people have been reported dead so far. After the accident, the owner and all the managerial staff escaped from the scene, hence the actual number of people who were in the mine is still under investigation.

Other accidents include: On October 30, the Xilutian Mine in Fushun city, Liaoning province had a poisonous gas leakage causing 15 deaths. The Yutong Mine in Yashan city, Sichuan province collapsed, resulting in nine deaths, five missing, and nine injured.

Flooding in the Desheng Mine in the city of Wuan in Hebei province trapped 29 workers and their current situation is still unknown. In the Sanlian Coal Company’s Fengchun Mine in Chongqing city, Sichuan province a sudden gas and coal emission resulted in 13 deaths. There are also 15 confirmed deaths from a gas explosion accident at Wanlan Mine in Guizhou city.

Statistics show that the average amount of coal produced by each mineworker in China per year is 321 tons, which is only 2.2 percent of what a mineworker produces in the U.S. However, when producing 100 tons of coal, in China, the death rate is 100 times higher than that of the U.S.

The Bureau Chief of China’s State Administration for Work Safety, Wang Xianzhen admitted that the ratio for China’s coal mine accident rate is still very high, with coal mine safety measures still behind other developed countries. During the National Coal mine Safety Meeting in Beijing, Wang said that China’s coal mine death toll in 2003 was 80 percent of the world’s total coal mine death toll, but the coal mine production volume is only 35 percent of the world’s production volume.

In a news release dated October 21, China’s State Council recognized the accident that happened in the Daping Coal mine of Henan province as the most severe accident this year. That accident exposes weaknesses in China’s coal mine production safety infrastructure and the many defects in safety management. Especially under the current power shortage, the coal supply is very tight, and most coal mine companies are overloaded.

Nearly 30 percent of the total coal mines in China are high methane (CH4) level mines, with over 9,000 coal mines with high or excessive methane levels. Most coal mines use low skill workers; breaches of workers rights and irregular operations are also very common. Many companies also emphasize production very heavily, overlooking safety problems. Rushed production, and blindly going beyond production capacity are very common practices.

Xinsheng coal mine in Henan province had a gas explosion. The area is a scrapped mine district, and they use a scrapped mine well at the Daping coal mine under the Zhenzhou Coal Mine Group. It is a state-owned, medium scale coal mine, originally designed for a capacity of only 600,000 tons annually. It has since expanded to 1.3 million tons annually, severely exceeding its allowable capacity.

Baoxing coal mine owners still operate in Sichuan province’s Yaan city, ignoring the lack of necessary safety measures.
The coal mine industry is the most dangerous industry in China. Nearly 600,000 mining workers there suffer from pneumoconiosis; a disease caused by long time exposure to the dusty environment of a coal mine.

Each year there are around 70,000 new cases of the disease. In 2003, there were 12,000 new cases from state-owned coal mining companies, roughly about 17.5 percent of the total for underground workers in that year. This figure does not include data from local governments that own coal mines, or privately-owned county coal mines. Working conditions and ventilation and dust protection measures in these two classes of coal mines are even worse. Based on estimates of two million workers and a mortality rate that is twice as much as the state-owned coal mine companies, there would be around 60,000 new pneumoconiosis patients from the other two classes of coal mine companies as well.

Besides pneumoconiosis, rheumatism, and lumbar muscle strain, other occupational diseases are also very common for coal mine workers.