China's dusty lung crisis: Rural-urban health inequity as social and spatial injustice

Abstract

This paper examines rural-urban inequities in dusty lung (pneumoconiosis) deaths in China from 2002 to 2016 and possible causes for such inequities in the framework of social and spatial justice. The research reveals alarming results that have not been reported before. Dusty lung death rates for rural men increased twice as fast as those among urban men. The rural rates were particularly higher among middle-aged men, but lower in older age groups, as compared to urban rates. There were dramatic increases in death rates from 2011 to 2016 particularly among rural men aged 40–49 years old, who were many times more likely to die from dusty lung than urban men of a similar age. Chinese rural male victims also die at a younger age, compared to men in any of the seven countries or regions included in the study. For example, rural Chinese men aged 35–59 years old were many times more likely to die from dusty lung than their American, German, Polish, and Spanish counterparts. A possible explanation for the high death rates among middle-aged rural Chinese men is the tendency for rural migrant workers to be employed in unhealthy and unsafe working conditions in decent decades. Other explanations for the severe spatial injustice include the Hukou (household registration) system and the development policies that prioritize economic growth and urban development over occupational health and safety. The paper demonstrates the usefulness and weakness of the social and spatial justice concepts in understanding health inequity. Therefore, it proposes new definitions and models of social justice and spatial justice that combine the competing distribution and capabilities approaches and highlight interactions among multiple attributes.