The officially-acknowledged death toll is higher than the total number of people killed annually in mining accidents anywhere else in the world put together. One official report described conditions in such pits as similar to those in the mines of 18th Century Britain. The government has estimated that the industry should have as many as 500,000 safety inspectors. At present it has only a few thousand experts, responsible for inspecting more than 200,000 mines. Chinese miners face not only obvious dangers such as explosions and pit collapses.
Many mines do nothing to control dust.
The government acknowledges that another 10,000 miners die of lung diseases every year in addition to those killed in accidents. It has promised to sack managers of mines where more than 10 people are killed, a threat which many observers believe far from adequate. Unlike state-owned coal mines, which are saddled by huge financial burdens because of relatively high wages and a large number of retired staff to care for, the smaller mines use cheap migrant labour and have few overhead costs. It seems that as long as China's economy booms, such mines will be able to make ready profits and will ignore regulations in the pursuit of profit.