China is one of the most rapidly developing countries in the world. The current pattern of economic development has increased the number and frequency of occupational hazards and incidents. Occupational diseases exist in a wide range of industries and are rampant in middle and small scale enterprises. There are occupational hazards in traditional industries like coal mining and metallurgy as well as some newly emerging industries like automobile manufacturing and bioengineering. In China, the prevalence of occupational diseases and persistent exposure to occupational health hazards have posed serious threats to the vast migrant worker population. According to the Ministry of Health (MoH) report1, over 200 million workers are directly exposed to occupational health risks in their workplace with 16 million companies associated with poisonous and hazardous operations and production in the country. The experts estimate that at least 25 million employees in China are exposed to dust, toxins and noise hazards in over 300 different industries. In particular, the number of employees contracting pneumoconiosis is increasing at a rapid rate of 10,000 annually.

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