Dying for China’s economic miracle: migrant workers ravaged by lung disease, fighting to pay for the

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

South China Morning Post
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 10 October, 2018, 3:04am
UPDATED : Thursday, 11 October, 2018, 5:53am

Full Headline:
Dying for China’s economic miracle: migrant workers ravaged by lung disease, fighting to pay for their funerals

[excerpt]

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2167706/dying-chinas-economic-miracle-migrant-workers-ravaged-lung

Lack of contract denies compensation to many, while slow response from local government means more could die before medical and financial help arrives

On a rainy summer day, 52-year-old Wang Zhaogang paused to catch his breath after every four or five steps. He was wrapped up against the elements, since even a common cold could be enough to kill him, and his laboured breath emitted a deep wheezing sound.

So frail that his heartbeat was visible beneath skin stretched across his rib cage, Wang, from Hunan province in central China, had lost 15kg (33lbs) over the previous year and weighed only 40kg. Still, he has travelled alone five times this year from his hometown in Sangzhi – one of the 10 poorest counties in China – to the southern city of Shenzhen to campaign for the city’s government to recognise and help workers like him.

Filled with resentment, he glared up at the city’s skyscrapers, which he had helped build from 2004 onwards – at the cost of his health. “We are treated like ants … not humans,” said Wang, gasping for air. “I sold my life to Shenzhen. If I had known the danger of pneumatic drilling, I would never have done the work, no matter how poor I am.”

[Fishrrman]

"Data from the Chinese public health ministry shows that pneumoconiosis accounted for 22,701 of the 26,756 new occupational illness cases it recorded in 2017. Silicosis alone killed 46,000 people around the world in 2013, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington.

“A lot of them got ill with pneumoconiosis simply because they had been breathing in dust all day every day with no protection,” said Geoffrey Crothall, a spokesman for Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, which promotes and defends workers’ rights in China."

Reminds me of black lung, which too many coal miners ended up with right here.
! No longer available