Black lung patients face a long wait for compensation
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E-mail China Daily, March 25, 2013
Zhao Wenhai spends most of his time sitting in bed, even during the middle of the night, because he is afraid lying down will kill him.
Zhao, 43, was diagnosed with third-stage black lung disease, the highest severity of the illness, in 2007 after he spent six years toiling at a small gold mine in Northwest China's Gansu province between 1998 and 2003.
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A black lung patient from Tongren, Guizhou province, looks at an X-ray of his lungs. [Photo: China Daily] |
Zhao became a taxi driver in his native Gulang county in Gansu after he left the mine in 2003. He developed a bad cough the same year.
He lost the ability to work in 2010.
Black lung, or pneumoconiosis, has a high fatality rate.
"I think I cannot hold on until next year," he said.
Zhao still has hope for a "big" compensation settlement.
Zhao's compensation from a public work injury insurance fund has been delayed for eight months.
Zhao lives on a monthly 900-yuan ($145) subsidy from the government and some 700 yuan that his wife, a disabled woman, earns each month by making crafts.
Due to the lack of other sources of income, the couple have to borrow money to pay the tuition fees of their two children.
"Sometimes I feel breathless and hopeless," he said.
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