Lesson from lethal accident

IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE there was an accident such as the deadly explosion in a factory in Kunshan on Saturday that killed 75 workers and seriously injured another 185.

For the workers in this Taiwan-funded auto parts producer in East China's Jiangsu province, were they not killed in this explosion, which a preliminary investigation suggests was caused because of the concentrations of floating dust from the polishing of wheel hubs, they might well die gradually of pneumoconiosis, a disease caused by accumulation of dust in the lungs.

The investigation conducted so far has found that the workshop was not designed and built as it should have been for such a dangerous work and there was a catalog of violations of the country's safety rules: It had too many assembly lines, dust elimination equipment was not available for every work station, the electric facilities within the workshop were not designed and installed as required, the dust was not cleared up daily as it should have been, and the workers did not receive any safety education.