Lung disease deaths haunt Hunan towns
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 11, 2013
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A pneumoconiosis patient is lying on his bed in Daozi Township, Leiyang City, Hunan Province, August 26, 2013. [Photo: Beijing News / China.org.cn] |
Fifty five people have died of pneumoconiosis in Leiyang, Hunan Province, and many more are considering suicide, the Beijing News reported.
The disease was not detected until more than 10 years after the young people of Daozi Township travelled south to Shenzhen to make money as pneumatic drill workers, and unknowingly contracted the disease.
Pneumoconiosis is the most widespread occupational disease in China. By the end of 2011, 700,000 victims had been reported, mostly from the mining, metallurgy and digging industries, which all involve heavy exposure to dust.
Current medical treatments are not able to cure the disease. The disease causes victims' breathing and heart functions to fail, and it makes sufferers' lungs become hard. More than 10,000 migrant workers are set to die of this disease every year, according to statistics, the Beijing News reported.
Cao Bin is one such worker. For a week, he repeatedly considered suicide. "I wanted to die," he said, "If I get to a breaking point, I can take drugs, hang myself or use scissors to do it, there is always a way."
The three brothers in the Cao family have all suffered from pneumoconiosis. In 2011, younger brother Cao Manyun committed suicide by jumping from the seventh floor of a hospital. In April this year, his elder brother Cao Jin drank pesticide to end his suffering.
In the 1990s, Cao's brother introduced his family and others from the village to drilling jobs in Shenzhen. In total more than 200 workers moved to work as drillers, according to local government records.
"We worked so hard, and everyone dreamed of earning a fortune, and then coming back home to build a nice house for himself," said Xu Zhihui, a pneumoconiosis patient from Shuangxi Village.
There are at least 103 victims of the disease in Daozi Township, Eighteen people died before 2009, and since then a further 37 have died or committed suicide.
In April 2009, Xu Ruibao, another sufferer of the disease, went to his boss, demanding money for treatment, and received 100,000 yuan (US$16,341).
After that, 170 people went to hospital to get examined; only nine people were found to not have the disease.At the time, the factory boss said they must also have worked for other companies and refused to pay for their treatment.
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