PROFITS KILL

Rescuers removed the body of a victim from the Tunlan Coal Mine in China’s
Shanxi Province, where an explosion killed dozens of miners

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"At least 74 people died early Sunday after a mine explosion in northern China, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Dozens were still trapped in the mine on Sunday evening in the deadliest coal-mining accident in the country in more than a year. The miners were working in the Tunlan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province, the coal mining heartland of China, when the blast occurred at 2:17 a.m., Xinhua reported. The mine is in city of Gujiao and is run by the Shanxi Coking Coal Group, one of China’s largest producers of coking coal, which is used in steel production. ...The death toll on Sunday was the highest in a coal mine accident since December 2007, when an explosion in the city of Linfen in Shanxi Province — often called the most polluted city in China because of the relentless haze from coal production — killed 105 miners, The Associated Press reported, citing the State Administration of Work Safety. That explosion was set off by an accumulation of gas in an unventilated tunnel. The mining industry in China has a poor safety record. The government, which has been trying to improve safety standards by closing illegal mines, reported last month that about 3,200 people died in mining accidents last year, a 15 percent decrease from the previous year. ...But mining is lucrative for those at the top. The owners of large mining companies are among China’s wealthiest people." (New York Times, 23 February) RD