From the Associate Press: “Despite a fatality rate 100 time higher than that of the U.S., Chinese officials insist safety standards are improving in that country’s mines. (photo courtesy www.asianlabour.org)
BEIJING (AP) – Fires, floods and other disasters killed 5,286 Chinese miners in the first 11 months of this year but safety in the accident- prone industry is improving, the government said.
The figures were announced as the death toll in the latest disaster, a coal mine fire in central China, rose to 18. The industry’s death toll so far this year is eight per cent below the figure for the same period in 2003, due to a national safety campaign, the State Administration for Work Safety said Tuesday. ”
