The Tunlan Coal Mine, with an annual production capacity of 5 million tons, claims to have one of China's safest mining facilities. The Shanxi Coking Coal Group, to which Tunlan belongs, is China's largest producer of coking coal, coal that can be used in the production of smoke-free coke. No fatal accidents have occurred in the mine over the past five years, a rarity in Shanxi's mining industry. Several technologies protecting the safety of underground miners were invented by this mine's owners. They have been granted patents and a national award for technological innovation.

Breaking the pattern

At a provincial conference on work safety three days before the accident, Governor Wang interrupted the reports of several mayors when they said their cities have not closed down all small coal mines and firework mills. Considered a fundamental measure to reduce accident casualties, closing small coal mines and firework mills is a top priority of Wang's five-month tenure. "We have to fulfill our duties despite the criticism and scolding from the public," Wang said at the meeting. "We cannot afford to cry any longer."

On March 1, Shanxi is set to start a one-year campaign on work safety in state-owned and collectively owned mines.

A February 23 editorial in Shaanxi-based Huashang Newspaper said China should learn from U.S. experiences to reduce mortality in coal production as China is now having the same problems the United States had in the first half of the 20th century.

Ma Jiuqi, the author of the editorial, said U.S. coal-mine deaths were tragically high before the 1940s. The deadliest coal mine disaster, 1907's Monongah coal mine explosion, claimed 362 lives. But research, technology, and preventive programs in the following decades greatly drove down mine accidents in number and severity. Accidents and deaths in U.S. coal mines have significantly dropped since an explosion in West Virginia, which killed 78 people, impelled Congress to adopt 1969's Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act. The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, an amendment to the 1969 act, became the most comprehensive and stringent coal mine safety law in human history, with harsh penalties for all violations.

The editorial said the United States has applied a successful trio of measures that consist of strict law enforcement, miner training and technology backup.

"China's work safety, especially coal-mine safety records, is no comparison to those of advanced countries," says the article. "Yet these countries' high safety standards were not achieved overnight, rather it took a long process of frequent disasters, self-criticism and self-improvement, which can be useful lessons for us."

China's Coal Mine Accidents With 20 or More Fatalities in 2008

On October 29, a gas explosion in Weinan City, Shaanxi Province killed 29 miners.

On September 21, a gas explosion in central China's Henan Province killed 37 miners.

On September 20, an accidental fire at Fuhua Coal Mine in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province killed 31 miners.

On September 4, a gas blast in northeast China's Liaoning Province killed 27 miners.

On August 18, a gas explosion in Liaoning Province killed 26 miners.

On July 21, a flood in Nadu Coal Mine in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region killed 34 miners.

On July 5, a carbon monoxide poisoning accident in Shanxi Province killed 21 miners.

On June 13, a blast caused by explosives in Anxing Coal Mining Co. Ltd. in Xiaoyi City, Shanxi Province, killed 31 miners.

On January 20, an explosion in an illegal coal mine of Shanxi Province killed 20 miners.

(Source: State Administration of Work Safety)