Occupational hazard

Such an injustice should not have happened: an occupational disease patient had to have his chest cut open to testify that he did suffer from such an ailment. Even so, he is finding it very difficult to get due compensation.

This migrant worker, who worked for three years from 2004 to 2007 in a fireproof brick factory in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province, was diagnosed by several hospitals including big ones in Beijing as suffering from pneumoconiosis. But the local occupational disease prevention institute, which has the sole authority to examine and certify such diseases, diagnosed him as suffering from tuberculosis.

To expose the blatant lie, the worker, despite the objections of doctors at a local hospital, insisted that his chest be cut open to ascertain whether or not he was suffering from pneumoconiosis. The operation confirms that his lung is seriously affected by dust inhalation. However, the local government department that received the worker said that no diagnosis certificate other than from the occupational disease prevention institute was valid as proof of his condition.