The Ministry of Health sounded a clarion call yesterday aiming to bolster awareness among the country's 200 million migrant workers' as to laws governing occupational diseases as the prevention record of such illnesses grows more woeful.

"Migrant workers account for up to 90 percent of occupational disease sufferers, despite being protected by the Law on Occupational Disease Prevention," Vice-Minister of Health Chen Xiaohong stated at a law promotion program at Beijing Railway Station. Many migrant workers recently returned to Beijing after Spring Festival were on attendance at the event.

Chen tackled the problem head on, acknowledging that China has a dire record in terms of workplace safety for migrant workers, hampering both the sustainable development of labor resources.

A small minority of migrant workers are aware of the occupational disease prevention law, revealed Su Zhi, deputy director of the ministry's workplace disease supervision bureau.

"This initiative will aim to educate migrant workers about the law, enabling them to safeguard both their rights and health," he said.

Meng Guofang, 43, a worker from central China's Henan Province, has been working on construction sites in Beijing for years but had never heard of the law until yesterday's program at which he commented: "Now I know I have a law to protect myself."

Occupational diseases, the principal causes of which lie in industrial dust, radioactive matter and toxic chemicals on work sites, are harming an increasing number of workers according to recent statistics from the Ministry of Health. These statistics label pneumoconiosis as China's most widespread occupational disease, with 600,000 workers suffering from it, 140,000 of whom have died since tracking of such diseases began in the 1950s.

(China Daily March 6, 2007)