July 29, 2007. A rural migrant laborer works in extreme heat on an Anhui construction siteBy Zhang Ming'ai
BEIJING (china.org), April 11, 2008:
Nearly 200 million laborers in China are damaging their health in 16 million dangerous or toxic workplaces nationwide according to survey organized jointly by 39.net and the Nanfang Weekly.
Most are migrant workers forced by poverty to take dirty, back-breaking jobs that others refuse. They have little awareness of occupational diseases and rarely seek medical help. If they are injured or fall ill they face crippling medical bills as few employers provide medical insurance.
38 percent of migrants surveyed had never heard of occupational diseases; 37 percent knew a little, and only 19 percent had adequate knowledge. 20 percent had no idea of the risks at work; 42 percent had some knowledge and only 32 percent said they were clear about the risks at work and the protection measures that should be taken.
The 2002 Law on Occupational Disease Prevention stipulates that employers must provide regular occupational health training, but 57 percent said that they had received no safety training.
Although 90% of workers said they feel in good, or quite good health, when questioned more closely 22 percent reported back problems, 17 percent insomnia, and 11 percent coughs and dizzy spells.
Experts fear they are storing up trouble for the future. Occupational diseases take years to become apparent but are often incurable, even fatal. When workers get too old or too ill to work they are simply fired and have to return to the countryside.
Without medical insurance workers tend to neglect their health. 83 percent do not have regular check-ups; 67 percent have never been inoculated and 67 percent do not have even the most commonly used drugs at home.
Professor Xiao Shuiyuan, director of the School of Public Health at Central South University believes workers are also risking their mental health. Working long hours in terrible conditions for low wages and often without decent accommodation, many rural migrants feel marginalized in the cities and suffer from loneliness and depression. The survey found over 50 percent think life is not worth living and more than 17 percent have seriously considered suicide.
January 19, 2008. On this Beijing demolition site, all the men slept together in this room and worked 8 hour shifts 7 days a week.The workers surveyed had little awareness of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. 40 percent did not know that kissing does not spread AIDS. Some are leading risky sex lives. 42 percent never use condoms; 25 percent use them occasionally.
Experts believe the solution lies in development of standardized social security and medical insurance systems. As Professor Li Lu said, "If society does not invest and neglects health problems today, it will have has to shoulder much bigger burdens in the future."
The White Paper on the Health of Migrant Workers was published following interviews with 3899 farm workers in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
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