Workplace safety in 8 provinces examined

China’s safety watchdog has launched a new round of checks in eight provinces and regions after accidents were reported, a notice on Sunday from the State Administration of Work Safety said.

The State Council Work Safety Committee has sent eight teams of inspectors to Beijing and Chongqing, Hebei, Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, and the Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions, the notice said.

The teams will stay at least a month to find loopholes in local governments’ work on preventing accidents, clearing risks and taking safety measures in construction and industrial production.

“Enterprises found with safety issues or potential dangers in spot checks by the inspectors will be exposed and local governments will be held accountable,” the notice said.

The inspection is the third round conducted by the committee since October. The first two covered a total of 16 provinces and regions.

Inspection teams will focus on specific areas. For example, in Jiangsu province last year, teams inspected all dust-related workplaces with more than 30 employees, while in Anhui province, more attention was paid to the safety in major industries, such as construction, mining and chemical production.

About 39,000 enterprises were suspended from business, 13,000 were forced to close and 21,000 licenses were revoked during the first two inspections, a report released in January showed.

The committee will finish checks nationwide after the fourth round, starting in June.

Several severe accidents disclosed recently have attracted public attention and raised widespread concern, making work safety an priority for authorities.

A collapse of scaffolding at an aquatic park under construction in Macheng, Hubei province, on March 27 killed nine workers and injured six. Ten workers were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in Lianyuan, Hunan province, on Feb 14.

Figures from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development show the number of accidents at construction sites for public housing or other public projects reached 86 by the end of March — up 10.3 percent from a year earlier. They resulted in 78 deaths, up 11.3 percent from a year earlier.

The Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council have jointly released a series of guidelines to boost the reform on work safety, setting a goal to reduce accidents by 2020.