During the first half of this year, a total of 53,302 people have been killed in 447,234 workplace accidents, said Wang Xianzheng, head of the State Administration on Work Safety (SAWS), Tuesday at a symposium attended by work safety supervisors from across the nation.

The latest report from Hegang in Heilongjiang Province, where a gas explosion occurred on Monday, confirms that 44 persons were killed.

The bodies of the victims, including the mine owner, Zou Tianyu, have all been taken out of the pit, according to rescue workers at the Dingsheng Coal Mine in Hegang City.

Gao Yun, director of the Hegang coal mining administration, said that Zou took over the private mine in July last year, and that it had failed a safety inspection this year..

The mine had its licence suspended and was ordered to stop operations by municipal and provincial authorities on July 5 and 6 respectively. However, Zou ignored the notices and ordered his miners to go underground.

Gao said his administration had found that the mine, with an annual output of 60,000 tons, had added a fourth tunnel to the operation, which limited the effectiveness of the ventilation system.

After a preliminary investigation, deputy chief engineer of the Hegang mining administration Yu Liheng said the explosion was caused by an accumulation of gas when the electricity was cut off and ventilation stopped two hours before the explosion took place.

Meanwhile, in Jiangyuan County in Jilin Province, local officials said Tuesday that seven miners were confirmed dead after a coal mine was flooded at around 10 am on Sunday. Two miners were found dead at the site and five injured men later died in hospital.

Wang said in Beijing Tuesday that the nation's work safety situation is generally starting to improve. Aside from civil aviation and road mishaps, the number of accidents in other sectors has declined compared with figures for the same period last year.

The situation prompted the country to launch two nation-wide campaigns on workplace safety supervision and improvement in March and June, he said. And threats against those demanding work safety have been found in every sector.

To curb the occurrence of serious accidents, prevention efforts should be given high priority and work safety supervision and administration should be strengthened, said the leader of China's top work safety watchdog.

On July 1, a law on work safety was promulgated and put into effect by China's top legislative body, giving SAWS, which is under the State Council, the right to implement comprehensive supervision and administration measures for workplace safety.

One of the major tasks for SAWS in the second half of the year is to promote awareness of the law and see to its implementation as well to revise and perfect corresponding regulations concerning work safety, he said.

Under the guidance of the State Council, SAWS will launch special supervision programmes in many sectors especially in coal mines and dangerous chemical production plants.

In addition, the promotion of work safety knowledge and training will be strengthened among the labour force at the same time as the nation enhances co-operation with developed countries who have done a better job in work safety administration, said the director.

As in the past, coal mine accidents top the list of tragedies.

In analyzing the causes of coal mine accidents, Dong Xiangge, director of Jilin Supervision Bureau of Coal Mine Safety, said the large-scale State-owned pits lack the money to upgrade their work safety equipment.

On the other hand, the owners of the small pits, mainly privately-owned, pay little attention to work safety investment, putting profit ahead of everything else, especially under the awakening of demand in the domestic coal market, he added.

There are a total of 2,800 coal mine safety supervisors around the nation, and each of them is in charge of the safety of at least 10 coal mines, according to SAWS statistics.

(China Daily July 10, 2002)