New safety scandals show how far China needs to go to improve public safety.
Food and drug regulators are investigating widespread use by restaurants of recycled cooking oil, including oil contaminated by food waste and salvaged from drains, The New York Times reports. A university professor who has studied the problem estimated that recycled oil was being used in 1 in 10 meals in China.
And in Shanxi Province in northern China, hope dimmed for the rescue of 153 miners trapped in a flooded mine shaft. The government’s job safety agency is blaming mine management for ignoring water leaks and forcing more workers into the tunnel than were allowed. If rescue efforts fail, it would be the deadliest mining accident since 2007, when 172 miners perished in a flooded mine in Shandong Province. Last year, 2,600 workers died in mining accidents, 50 percent fewer than in 2005.
