An interesting article in the NYT talks about the increasing transparancy of China's National Administration of State Secrets (interesting name!) in providing death tolls of natural disasters. The full article is here for those who are interested.
What will prove to be most fascinating will be what exactly they define as a 'natural disaster.' The article restricts the definition to "earthquakes, hurricanes and typhoons", but leaves it open to interpretation (ex. a flood from a broken 3 Gorges Dam).
I mention this because of the high mortality rate in China's coal mines - where hundreds die each month. Just yesterday in the South China Morning Post (www.SCMP.com) headlines read of 27 miners missing after a flood and a fire. News like this breaks almost weekly. The good news is that we informed readers actually get a hard number. The bad news (as well as the loss of life) is that it's unclear how many of these cave-ins are not accurately reported - if reported at all.
"China’s coal mines are the world’s deadliest, with thousands of workers dying each year in floods, fires and explosions caused by lack of proper equipment and lax enforcement of safety rules." - 9.12.05 SCMP.com
peace. paul.
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According to a recent report from the International Labour Organisation, an average of 5,000 workers are killed every day in work accidents. No breakdown was given by region or country.
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