Categories
Commodities Energy & Environment Health Care Law & Regulation Politics & Society Transport & Logistics

Tianjin death toll grows to 112 as 95 still missing amid chemical concerns

The official death toll from explosions Wednesday at a chemical storage facility in Tianjin has risen to 112, with 95 more people missing, Bloomberg reported, citing state media. Among those missing are 85 firefighters, according to a Xinhua report. Officials acknowledged that first responders did not know what was on fire and doused the flames […]

Categories
Energy & Environment Health Care Law & Regulation Politics & Society

Air pollution contributes to 1.6mn deaths in China every year, study finds

Three-eights of the population of mainland China breathe air that would be rated “unhealthy” by American standards, contributing to an estimated 1.6 million deaths a year, The New York Times reported, citing a scientific paper released by statistical research organization Berkeley Earth. The paper also maps the geographic sources of China’s toxic air and concludes that […]

Categories
Business Practice Health Care Law & Regulation Politics & Society

More than 10,000 residents flee city in Sichuan due to toxic leak

Over 10,000 residents in the outskirts of the Sichuan city of Nanchong were forced to evacuate this week when toxic liquid ammonia began leaking from a pipe at the nearby Chuanlong Chemical Company plant, South China Morning Post reported, citing local media. At least one middle-aged man passed out after inhaling the toxic gas about 100 […]

Categories
Health Care Law & Regulation Politics & Society

Medical insurance expansion planned before year's end

China’s State Council announced the country’s medical insurance would be expanded to cover half of the medical costs from critical illnesses by the end of 2015, Reuters reported. The aim of expanding the country’s health insurance was to “effectively alleviate poverty caused by illness” and to build a stronger universal health care system, the council said. Since […]

Categories
Business Practice Health Care

GSK CEO optimistic after quarterly drug sales in China drop 14%

Chief executive officer of pharmaceutical conglomerate GlaxoSmithkline Andrew Witty maintained the company’s business in China is stabilizing even as he admitted that the country’s drug market had slowed dramatically over the last year, The Guardian reported. The firm’s sales in China fell 14% in the latest quarter, but Witty said this reflected price reductions which […]