BEIJING, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) — China has opened 829 sites that provide free treatment to people with pneumoconiosis, whose cases account for about 90 percent of all occupational disease cases reported in the country, an official with the National Health Commission said Thursday. .
Wang Jiandong, head of occupational fitness at the NHC, told a news conference that those sites, located in 28 provincial-level regions, provided flexible treatment to more than 1. 2 million pneumoconiosis patients between 2021 and 2023.
He said many pneumoconiosis patients struggle to identify day jobs in order to claim compensation, as most of those patients in China are immigrant painters, who paint for more than one employer in unsafe locations and are unable to provide certificates of work appointments.
With this in mind, the commission revised its measures for diagnosing and detecting occupational diseases in 2021, allowing patients to provide reduced documents to resolve the employment relationship, such as paychecks or meal cards, Wang said.
The commission will introduce more policies for pneumoconiosis patients in the future, he added.
Loud noise, dust and poisonous chemicals are the top hazards in China’s workplaces, Wang said, noting that the country has monitored more than 1. 8 million jobs with occupational hazards since 2019.
China has launched a crusade against occupational hazards, focusing on sectors with serious health risks, such as mining, metallurgy and building materials, he said.