News
China boosts efforts to combat occupational diseases to better protect workforce
Updated: Apr 29, 2025
Xinhua
Print
Share - WeChat
BEIJING -- China has strengthened legislation and harnessed technology to prevent and control occupational disease hazards, aiming to better protect workers' health.
China has established a comprehensive legal framework for the prevention of occupational diseases, encompassing six laws and regulations and 10 departmental rules, said Li Jun, deputy head of the occupational health department of the National Health Commission (NHC), at a press conference on Monday.
"The authorities have issued over 300 standards for monitoring and assessing occupational hazard factors, along with nearly 100 for engineering controls, in recent years, providing guidance and a legal basis for the prevention and control of occupational diseases," Li added.
China's law on occupational disease prevention and treatment guarantees multiple protections for workers. For instance, employers must arrange for workers with occupational diseases to receive treatment, rehabilitation, and regular checkups in accordance with regulations.
Workplace environments saw steady improvement last year, with employers demonstrating increasing awareness of their responsibility in preventing occupational diseases, according to NHC's monitoring results.
However, noise levels exceeding standards in the mining and machinery manufacturing industries continued to be a prominent issue, while small, medium and micro enterprises -- especially micro enterprises -- still need to strengthen their occupational health protection measures.
To address these challenges, the NHC has introduced 64 intelligent, efficient and energy-saving protective technologies across industries such as mining, metallurgy, chemical production and machinery manufacturing, helping enterprises enhance their protective measures, Li said.
In addition, more than 3,000 technical teams visited over 60,000 small, medium and micro enterprises in 2024 to guide them in enhancing their occupational disease prevention and control capabilities, Li added.
