Lung disease in coal mining industry claims far more lives than accidents do

Sixty-two percent of patients with a lung disease caused by dust inhalation come from the coal mining industry, and its death toll far outnumbers those in mining accidents, highlighting a significant danger to miners' health, a report released on Friday said.

More than 720,000 workers nationwide reported their disease, pneumoconiosis, to the China Coal Miner Pneumoconiosis Prevention and Treatment Foundation. About 440,000 of those, or 62 percent, were from the mining industry. The form of the ailment prevalent among coal miners is known formally as black lung disease.

The foundation, under the leadership of the State's top work safety authority, has spent more than 113 million yuan ($18.1 million) since it was founded in 2004, and has provided assistance for the treatment of more than 125,500 pneumoconiosis patients, the report said.