China to hold respiratory-disease conference
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-01-08 10:56

China's Health Ministry announced here Friday that the 10th International Congress on Occupational Respiratory Diseases will be held in Beijing from April 19 to 22.

Su Zhi, a senior official of the ministry said more than 1,000 participants from 40 countries and regions will attend the conference, during which they will discuss such subjects as diagnosis and treatment of occupational respiratory diseases, health monitoring for people exposed to respiratory disease threats and management of dangerous factors in working environment.

China is one of the countries facing serious conditions of occupational diseases. "About 200 million Chinese are threatened by occupational diseases," Su said.

Su said China has reported a total of 580,000 pneumoconiosis cases since the 1950s. Pneumoconiosis, an occupational respiratory diseases, is caused by long-term inhalation of dust, especially mineral or metallic dust.

"The real figure could be over one million, since many miners didn't have regular medical checkup and so were not covered within the report," he said.

Su said the Chinese government is working hard to reverse the bad situation with cross-departmental efforts in recent years. "We hope to take the opportunity to exchange experiences with other countries and improve our ability to prevent and treat occupational diseases."

The congress was initiated by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 1930. The 10th congress will be co-sponsored by the Chinese Health Ministry and the ILO.

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