In mid-June, Chen Wei, deputy to the National People's Congress, deputy chairman of the Quzhou Municipal Committee of Jiusan Society, and assistant to the president of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, received a reply from the National Health Commission. The state will carry out a "look back" on the management of stone processing enterprises nationwide and include the artificial quartz stone processing industry as a key rectification scope. The reply responded to the "Recommendations on Carrying out Special Control Actions for Silicosis in the Artificial Quartz Stone Processing Industry" submitted by Chen Wei and other 10 National People's Congress deputies during the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress in March this year.
"There is an urgent need to launch a nationwide special campaign to control dust hazards in the artificial quartz stone processing industry in the first year of the '15th Five-Year Plan', improve occupational health standards, and strengthen supervision of small and micro-processing sites to curb the risk of silicosis." Chen Wei called for comprehensive management of the entire chain to curb the rapid onset of silicosis.
Chen Wei explained the pathogenesis and harmful characteristics of artificial quartz silicosis to reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily. She introduced that silicosis specifically refers to pneumoconiosis induced by crystalline silica. The material characteristics of artificial quartz stone make its disease risk far higher than that of natural stone. "Unlike the coarse dust particles visible to the naked eye, the dust produced by polishing artificial quartz stone is as thin as smoke, can easily penetrate into the human alveoli, and cannot be metabolized and cleared by the human immune system. Long-term accumulation will form pulmonary fibrosis nodules, gradually destroying the lung's gas exchange function, and ultimately causing irreversible lung damage." Chen Wei said.
Clinical studies conducted by the research team of Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University have demonstrated the seriousness of industry risks. Silicosis induced by artificial quartz stone is a typical fast-forward occupational disease, with the distinctive characteristics of short working years exposed to dust, rapid progression of the disease, and high mortality rate. The average working age of patients exposed to dust is only 5.6 years, which is far lower than the 20 to 45 years of working age for the onset of traditional silicosis. Young and middle-aged practitioners have become the main victim group.
The "2025 China Pneumoconiosis Migrant Workers Survey Report (Artificial Quartz Silicosis Special)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by the China Social Assistance Foundation's Great Love Cleaning Fund on June 18 shows that the highly pathogenic properties of high-silica raw materials, small and micro enterprises Six major problems, including the fragmented and extensive business model, the informal and flexible employment pattern in the home improvement industry, the weak risk awareness of front-line workers, the unclear division of responsibilities among all parties in the industry chain, and the lack of grassroots occupational health supervision, have combined to cause systemic protection failures in the industry.
This is the 12th pneumoconiosis migrant worker survey report that has been launched continuously since 2014. It is based on a survey of the front lines of artificial quartz stone processing across the country. The survey covered five major regions in the east, middle and west of my country, and went deep into front-line work scenes in Tangshan, Hebei, Wuwei, Anhui, Linfen, Shanxi, Yinchuan, Ningxia, and Guiding, Guizhou. By visiting 21 workplaces, collecting 110 valid worker questionnaires, completing 7 sets of on-site dust concentration sampling, and conducting in-depth interviews with patients diagnosed with silicosis, it tried to understand the current status of industry operations, protection loopholes, and the true health status of workers.
The concentration of the seven dust sampling points set up by the team all exceeded national standards. Among them, the peak dust value at a home improvement processing point in Ningxia exceeded the standard by more than 30 times. Dry cutting and grinding operations in confined spaces have become the highest-risk operation scenarios. The survey found that the dust protection system in the quartz stone processing industry is generally weak, and the configuration and use of protective facilities are seriously insufficient. Only less than half of the processing sites are equipped with professional dust removal equipment, and the proportion of sites that can turn on dust removal equipment at all times is even lower.
The "Report" also shows that workers' personal protection also has obvious shortcomings. Although the vast majority of workers are equipped with compliant protective masks, due to factors such as the working environment, wearing experience, and construction convenience, nearly 30% of workers are unable to wear masks in a standardized manner throughout the process. More than 80% of front-line practitioners have never received professional occupational health training, and self-protection awareness and professional protection capabilities are generally insufficient.
The lack of occupational health supervision is one of the core reasons for the accumulation of industry risks. The "Report" shows that more than 30% of front-line workers have never encountered supervisory personnel for door-to-door inspections, and only a handful of workplaces have received occupational health inspections by the health department. The long-term lack of protection and lack of supervision directly causes damage to workers' health. Survey data shows that more than 30% of workers have never had special lung examinations, and there are a large number of hidden diseases. Among workers who underwent imaging examinations, nearly 20% were found to have lung nodules and suspected or confirmed silicosis.
The reporter learned that governance work in some areas has been gradually advanced. Since April, the Health Bureau of Shizhong District, Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province has continued to carry out special supervision on occupational disease hazards in the quartz stone processing industry. It has issued rectification opinions on site, clarified the time limit for rectification, and urged enterprises to make closed-loop rectifications one by one. The Health Commission of Xiantao City, Hubei Province and the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Xiantao City also jointly launched a special inspection operation. From June 1 to June 30, they carried out cross-department "double random, one open" joint inspections of high-risk enterprises such as stone processing and chemical industries in the city, focusing on verifying the implementation of corporate health file management, employee occupational physical examinations, work-related injury insurance participation, daily monitoring of hazardous factors, etc., to build a comprehensive line of occupational health and safety defense.
Combining survey data and global governance experience, the "Report" proposes five full-cycle governance action recommendations: First, carry out special governance for the industry, comprehensively understand the base of processing sites, employees and risk links, and establish a dynamic ledger for the entire chain; second, strengthen dust source control, focus on household installation, dry cutting and dry grinding, and confined space operations, and promote wet, low-dust and dust-free processes; third, carry out comprehensive Occupational health screening in the industry, establishing a closed-loop mechanism for case registration and screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up; fourth, improving occupational health standards, departmental collaborative supervision, law enforcement inspections, and labor security systems to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of sick workers; fifth, promoting industry chain entities such as plate production, sales, processing, and installation to jointly assume responsibilities, and accelerating the research and development and application of low-silicon and zero-silicon alternative materials. The five actions together constitute a systemic governance system from risk prevention, disease discovery to rights protection and industrial transformation.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Li Guijie Source: China Youth Daily
