China boosts 'intl safe community' construction

China has picked up speed in constructing "international safe communities" in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) standard, according to a leading Chinese association Wednesday.

The country now has 64 such communities, the China Occupational Safety and Health Association (COSHA) said in a statement.

The Youth Park Community in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province was granted the country's first "international safe community" by the WHO Collaborating Center on Community Safety Promotion in March 2006.

The WHO's safe community concept was formally launched at the First World Conference on Accident and Injury Prevention in Stockholm, Sweden in September 1989.

The Manifesto for Safe Communities states that "All human beings have an equal right to health and safety." Regarded as a cost-effective way of injury prevention, a safe community can be a municipality, a county, a city or a district.

For a community to be designated as a safe community it must meet six indicators set by the WHO and pass a site visit.

A total of 1,589 communities in 22 Chinese provinces have started efforts to build safe communities, according to the COSHA, covering a gross population of 120 million.

Safe community efforts in Chinese urban and rural districts, enterprises and campuses have led to fewer accidents in terms of production, traffic, fire and social safety, said Zhang Baoming, COSHA Chairman.

Yang Dongliang, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, said Wednesday that China must carry on the safe community drive in an effort to build a harmonious socialist society.

The COSHA is an organization affiliated to the State Administration of Work Safety.