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. Both 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 group with the 20-29 age group taking up more than half of the total casualties. Industries having high injury rates included building and construction, furniture, paper mill and printing. Electrical appliances manufacturing, sewing and shoe making were the industries having low injury rates. Enterprises with foreign capitals and those managed by individuals also had lower injury rates. Machinery injuries were the most common type of major injuries while electrocution, being hit by heavy objects and falling from height accounted for over 60% of fatal injuries. The implications of the differential distributions of the occurrence of the injures were discussed.