Black lung tops occupational diseases list

More workers are suffering occupational diseases than ever before, and 80 percent of them have pneumoconiosis, or known as black lung disease, the country's top legislature said.

Huang Zhendong, director of the Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said the accumulated number of people with a workplace-related disease was about 700,000 in 2008. The number of sufferers was 670,000 in 2006.

"The rate of occupational disease has been on the rise since 2005," Huang said in an address to the bimonthly session of the 11th NPC Standing Committee.