Coalmine Work Place Safety in China

Coalmine Work Place Safety in China

Last month, the nuclear plant situation in Japan is going from bad to worse. Some people were taking the risk of being exposed to radiation, which could lead to death in a few weeks, to try to shut the plant down manually in order to reduce the risk of radiation in the whole area. This action makes many countries rethink their own safety on nuclear plants and other work places that may easily cause accidents and casualties. Especially in China, a country having 700 million labors (Wu 41), there are many extremely unsafe working conditions, and the most obvious one is in the private coalmines business. In the year of 2009, there were 2,700 deaths caused by accidents in coalmines in China, which is lower compared with the 5,986 deaths in 2005, but still important (Wu 41). For sure, Chinese government has already realized the seriousness of the problem and some improvement on regulations and security systems have been made for years. But there are still serious problems in the management and institutions, which can only be solved by changing the current economic growth-oriented mode that is set by the Chinese government to the people-oriented mode.

This kind of complex situation in coalmines in China is caused by many reasons and the government should take the most responsibility. One reason is the high demand of coal among the whole country: “Coal currently provides more than 70% of the PRC’s energy needs, and the economy and energy demands are growing rapidly” (Homer 425). The increasing demand drives the number of people who start coalmine businesses to make huge profits increasing significantly in some poor provinces in the Midwest of China. Another reason why the government should take responsibility, and also the most important one is that the economic growth-oriented mode has a high require on the development of the economy in every province. That means every governor should do everything he can to reach the number of...