Occupational Disease Prevention Must Keep Pace with the Times

Dai Xianren

April 25th to May 1st was the national 23rd promotion week of the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Occupational Disease Prevention and Control", and the National Health Commission held a press conference on April 28th, with the theme being "Caring for Laborers' Occupational Health". The National Health Commission stated that work-related musculoskeletal diseases, mental health issues, and behavioral problems are new challenges to occupational health.

At this press conference, Deputy Director of the Department of Occupational Health, Li Jun, introduced the "Occupational Disease Classification and Catalogue", which is an important basis for guiding occupational disease prevention and control work and protecting the rights of laborers' occupational health. With rapid economic and social development and changes in production and living habits, some unhealthy working conditions and workload-related physical and mental health problems have become more prominent.

The current "Occupational Disease Classification and Catalogue" does not include musculoskeletal damage-type diseases. Last December, the National Health Commission adjusted the occupational disease catalog with relevant departments, adding two new categories of occupational musculoskeletal diseases and occupational mental health disorders in line with international labor organizations and many countries around the world. After adjustment, China has 12 classes of 135 types of occupational diseases, and the new version of the "Occupational Disease Classification and Catalogue" will officially take effect on August 1st this year.

Many laborers now need to work for long periods sitting or standing in fixed positions, such as office workers, teachers, police officers, doctors and nurses, game hosts, and drivers. For these groups of professionals, musculoskeletal damage-type diseases, although not recognized as occupational diseases, are indeed related to their work activities and could be included in the scope of occupational disease prevention. Including musculoskeletal damage-type diseases would be reasonable, rational, and consistent with reality, allowing "blue-collar workers" to better prevent new types of occupational injuries.

Additionally, the revised catalog added a category of occupational mental health disorders for the first time, which could provide stronger protection for special groups of professionals, such as police officers, medical staff, firefighters, and funeral home workers who may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after experiencing traumatic events. Not only these special groups but also ordinary laborers' mental health should be paid attention to. Protecting laborers' mental health requires doing a good job of protecting their psychological well-being.

To actively respond to new challenges in occupational health, we must use institutional safeguards to crack down on these challenges. Occupational disease prevention must keep pace with the times, constantly adjusting its direction and categories based on new labor employment trends. This is to better prevent occupational diseases, protect laborers' occupational health rights, fill in and eliminate gaps in occupational injury protection, and expand laborers' right spaces.

For employers, adding new disease categories means increasing responsibilities, requiring them to strictly implement relevant occupational disease prevention and control responsibilities, such as improving working conditions and doing a good job of disease prevention knowledge popularization. Additionally, employers must do a good job of providing supporting measures, such as solving difficulties in diagnosing related diseases. We should avoid simplistically including some diseases into the scope of occupational diseases, nor should we make it difficult to diagnose relevant diseases, causing problems with implementation and harming laborers' rights. To let new disease categories better take effect, protect both employers and laborers' legal interests, and perfect the occupational injury protection system.

The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author only.