Occupational injuries in Shunde City - a county undergoing rapid economic change in Southern China

A survey was carried out in Shunde City of Southern China to look into the occurrence of occupational injuries in the 'township industries' during the years 1989-1993. A total of 981 major injuries and 159 fatal injuries were recorded for 602 533 person years over the 5 years, giving a major injury rate of 1.63/1000 per year and a fatal injury rate of 0.26/1000 per year. B oth the major injury rate and the fatal injury rate increased from 1989 to 1993. Males had a higher fatal injury rate while females had a higher major injury rate. The majority of the injuries occurred in the younger age grou p with the 20-29 age group taking up more than half of the total casualties . Industries having high injury rates included building and construction, f urniture, paper mill and printing. Electrical appliances manufacturing, sew ing and shoe making were the industries having low injury rates. Enterprise s with foreign capitals and those managed by individuals also had lower inj ury rates. Machinery injuries were the most common type of major injuries w hile electrocution, being hit by heavy objects and falling from height acco unted for over 60% of fatal injuries. The implications of the differential distributions of the occurrence of the injures were discussed. (C) 1999 Els evier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.