Opinion>China
         
 

More care for work safety
 Updated: 2004-05-10 08:42

Equal importance should be attached to economic development and work safety, according to an article in the Shanghai-based Jiefang Daily. An excerpt follows:

Recent weeks have witnessed a series of fatal production accidents such as gas leaks, explosions and shoddy milk powder.

How should we deal with such a serious situation concerning safe production?

A government official said it is a boom period for production accidents when the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) reaches between US$1,000 and US$3,000. To a certain extent, that makes sense. Frequent production accidents, indeed, have some relation with rapid economic growth.

The bloody accidents should serve as a timely reminder that, in tandem with rapid economic development, special attention should be attached to safety in production to avoid similar tragedies in the future.

To efficiently prevent production accidents, the public should be informed of potential threats and dangers so that proper supervision and self-protection measures can be put in place.

Relevant departments tend to downplay potential dangers in production for fear of causing panic among the public. Such well-intentioned action, however, does not help.

It has been proven that lack of knowledge and information makes it impossible for the public to give necessary supervision to producers, thus easily falling victim to inferior practices.

To achieve safe production, it is important for relevant government departments to strengthen supervision and management. And an accountability system for relevant officials should be established. At the same time, open information to the public, widespread education to raise their awareness and supervision from the public are also important.

The significance of safe production should never be under estimated since it concerns the life and assets of the public and has a bearing on social stability.

(China Daily)


 
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