Human errors are blamed for most fatal work place accidents, a senior Chinese work safety official said Wednesday.

"Studies show that more than 90 percent of work place accidents were caused by human errors." said Sun Huashan, deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety at 2006 International Conference on Occupational Safety Training held in Beijing on Wednesday.

The deputy director attributed the errors and the accidents to people's lack of work safety awareness and knowledge. He stressed the importance of nationwide training of work place safety, adding that China will establish a web-based training system by 2010.

Trainees will include workers and officials, Sun said.

"Fatigue is a major contributor to industrial accidents and disasters." said Laurence Svirchev from Workers' Compensation Board of BC, Canada.

He proposed that Fatigue Management should be included as an essential component in every occupational safety and health program for high-risk industries.

Zu Liangrong, an official with the International Training Center of the International Labor Office (ILO), reviewed the occupational safety and health and labor inspection organized by ILO Turin Center in the past years.

He said it is quite necessary to widen and specify the work safety-related education and training.

Zu suggested the training should be carried out on five levels including the national, the institutional, the sectoral, the enterprise levels and specific courses for social partners.

Zhang Pingyuan, deputy director of Personnel Training Department of the State Administration of Work Safety pointed out that there is a long way to go for improving China's work safety training.

"People apparently lack basic knowledge in work place safety." said Zhang, "More laws and regulations are needed in this aspect, and future training should cover rural labors." he added.

Zhang also called for more investment in the existing training programs and a better supervision mechanism.

Some entrepreneurs from domestic manufacturing and mining industries also attended Wednesday's conference.

China reported 717,938 work place accidents in 2005, which killed 127,089 people and caused enormous economic losses.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2006)