BBC News - China flooding 'traps 152 miners'
This is a very brief report of yet another coal mining accident in China.
The number of Chinese miners killed every year is simply amazing. In Australia or the US, an accident killing a dozen people is huge news and is viewed as a great tragedy for virtually all of the nation. In China, with (as this article notes) thousands of deaths in the mines every year, it's hard to imagine any but the largest incidents getting much coverage. Some years in the last decade have had close to 7,000 deaths.
Strange how a communist nation manages to do the least to protect its workers.
It's actually more than that Steve. A single death in an Austalian mine will shut the operation down for ages while an enquiry goes on. There is the possibility of criminal charges if management are found liable, the list goes on.
ReplyDeleteThe Moura underground has never been re-opened after the disater there in what, 1993. That was a prime example of management negligence.
I work for a mine design consultancy and safety is pretty much always first thing in your mind.
It's even more so when you're working on a minesite. Although, there are a few places where this attitude goes a bit too far.
I do think the Australian safety culture is more risk adverse than in the US. You do still hear periodically about mine flooding events etc. in some of those Virginian underground (coal) mines and I don't think that ever happens in Australia.
Good point about the workers paradise not taking good care of its workers too. I'm pretty sure that China looses more people in a year in mine accidents that Australia has lost in out history of mining.
From what I understand, the dangerous pits are the small, "private" pits, the bigger (govt operated?) ones are a bit safer.
It always amazes me the risks Chinese are prepared to take for money. The milk contamination scandal, for example, always seemed like an endeavour which was bound to catch up with the perpetrators, yet the lure of the money must have been too much for them. They eventually paid with their lives. I wonder whether any private mine owners ever suffer the same fate...
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's a Chinese specific thing. More a developing country thing. I've worked in a developing country (Mozambique) and things are just, different, over there. Life just seems a lot cheaper, which is not pleasant..
ReplyDeleteAs I was saying, the major mines aren't too bad in China, but, yeah, the little ones are the death traps. Do the mine managers ever get held responsible? No idea. I suspect a few get rounded up periodically when there's pressure for it to happen but, this is Communist China we're talking about here.