Cina:32 morti bianche

32 persone sono morte in due incidenti sui luoghi di lavoro. Il primo, in seguito ad una esplosione accaduta in una zona rurale, ha provocato 15 morti; mentre il secondo, che ha provocato la morte di altre 17 persone, è accaduto a causa di un ascensore che si è bloccato in un cantiere urbano. Questi due incidenti metteno in evidenza ancora una volta la carenza di misure di sicurezza nei luoghi di lavoro in Cina.Segue l’articolo in inglese.

Thirty-two people have died in two separate accidents in China, as explosives went off in a rural area while a lift crashed on an urban building site, highlighting the nation’s poor work safety record.

In the first of the incidents, a blast erupted at 1:12 am (1712 GMT Friday) in the village of Donggancheng, in central China’s Henan province, the Xinhua news agency reported.

“Fifteen people died and nine were injured,” said an official with the Henan provincial work safety bureau, speaking to AFP by telephone and giving only his surname, Huang.

While rescue work had already been completed by noon Saturday, investigations were launched into why the tragedy took place.

One report from Xinhua suggested the explosion was due to illegal storage of detonators, adding police were targeting unidentified people suspected of having broken safety regulations.

Explosives are widely available in the Chinese countryside, where they are used for construction work, and deadly accidents happen frequently.

In the day’s second serious incident, 17 people died after a construction lift crashed to the ground on a building site.

The accident happened at about 7:30 am (2330 GMT Friday) in the city of Changsha, capital of Hunan province, also in central China, according to state media and officials.

“Sixteen people died when the lift crashed and two were seriously injured,” an official at the Changsha work safety bureau surnamed Guan told AFP. “One of the two injured later died in hospital.”

He added the cause of the accident was still under investigation.

China has experienced a construction boom in recent years and new buildings continue to be erected at a brisk pace despite the global economic crisis.

China’s work safety record is notorious and thousands of people die every year in mines, factories and on construction sites, according to official sources.

Partial data from the State Administration of Work Safety showed 1,942 died in large work-related accidents in the period from January 1 to December 14.

The administration said 99 people lost their lives on construction sites over the period, while it did not give a figure for deaths caused by explosions.

The figures are likely to amount to a drastic understatement of the real extent of safety problems at Chinese work places, as they do not include fatalities from smaller incidents.

Official data also gives an overly rosy picture because many accidents are covered up by local officials worried that they may be punished for flawed supervision, observers have argued.

(Fonte: AFPress)