Editorials

Miners' safety

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-19 07:56

Thirty-one coal miners were killed and the fate of six others still remains unknown following a coalmine gas leak in Central China's Henan province on Saturday. Everybody is wishing for a "miracle" like the one in Chile last week when 33 miners were safely pulled out of a mine 69 days after a shaft caved in.

Life will be much harder for the six Chinese miners if they are still alive. They don't have a lifesaving haven, such as the one that made it possible for their Chilean counterparts to survive for 69 days before being pulled to safety.

While the rescue operation is going on to save the miners, the good news is that five large coalmines in North China's Shanxi province, one of the major coal producing regions in the country, have started to install lifesaving cabins in their pits. Such cabins can keep 10 to 12 miners alive for 96 hours after a gas leak or explosion occurs.

The cost is just 3 to 5 yuan for every ton of coal produced. So such lifesaving facilities will in no way exert a heavy financial burden on a coalmine that produces millions of tons of coal. The action in Shanxi sends the message that there is no technological barrier preventing mines installing such lifesaving facilities.

What really matters is the importance coalmine leaders and local government leaders attach to the safety of miners.

A similar gas leak accident took place two years ago, claiming 23 lives in exactly the same pit where the 31 miners died. It was reported that the mine had adopted safety measures against gas leaks and also educated miners about the gas hazard.

Apart from rescuing the trapped miners, an investigation needs to be organized to find out what safety measures the mine adopted after the fatal accident two years ago and why the measures were ineffective in this instance.

If there had been a lifesaving haven in this shaft, the chances of survival for the miners would have been much greater.

The central government required mines nationwide to install permanent lifesaving havens several years ago, according to experts. But very few did so.

Now it is high time that a law is made to force mines to have lifesaving havens.

Shanxi has taken the lead, others should follow suit. And, where necessary, legislative measures need to be used to force them to do so.

(China Daily 10/19/2010 page8)