While some experts have been saying that diseases like cervical or neck spondylosis should be officially classified as occupational diseases, they have been nixed for now. The committee to promote the Healthy China Initiative, a program to improve public health services and food and drug safety, recently announced that as per the Occupational Health Protection Action Plan, cervical spondylosis, frozen shoulder, waist pain and sciatica—nerve pain in the lower part of the body—will be considered non-occupational diseases, which can't be blamed on the workplace or the nature of the work. Employees have to get treatment themselves if they contract any of these diseases.

Today, ailments like spondylosis have become common in certain professions, especially among people who spend too much time sitting at their desk. Since it is not an officially recognized occupational disease, workers diagnosed with it can't enjoy the benefits intended for occupational disease sufferers, nor can they seek compensation on the grounds of injury incurred at work.

China's stronger economy and improving social security system may one day make it possible for such diseases to be included on the list of officially recognized occupational diseases, but for now, there are a lot of obstacles.

Determining a link between a disease and an occupation is essential to identify occupational diseases. The proposal to add new diseases to the list has stirred up a lot of debate. Some say that while working in front of computers for long periods of time may lead to cervical spondylosis, bad habits can also contribute to it. To simply list cervical spondylosis as an occupational disease will be unfair to businesses if their staff get the problem mostly because of bad habits.

Some people say the changing work environment requires an upgraded occupational disease catalogue, which will better protect workers while encouraging businesses to adopt a more humane schedule. However, especially with spondylosis, the technical difficulty in identifying how it is contracted is the biggest hurdle to putting it on the official list.

Lingering concerns

Dai Xianren (The Beijing News): The current occupational disease catalogue, modified in 2013, covers 132 diseases, excluding muscle and bone injuries. The changing work environment demands that the catalogue be revamped and expanded, so that it can better protect workers' health.

Many people would welcome it if cervical spondylosis was put on the list. Office staff, teachers and even drivers are all at risk. If it were listed, it would encourage employers to pay more attention to preventing this disease among their employees. So the odds are high that cervical spondylosis will be classified as an occupational disease.

But while diseases like cervical spondylosis and frozen shoulder are closely related to sedentary work, a lot of bad habits in lifestyle are also to be blamed, such as smartphone addiction when users' eyes are always glued to their phone screens. So to rush to list cervical spondylosis as an occupational disease will drastically increase the financial pressure on businesses, which might then have to pay for their workers' bad lifestyle.

A possible scenario is that if it is listed, businesses will do their best to complicate and tamper with the approval procedure. Consequently, the classification will be of no real help to workers.

The obstacle to classifying spondylosis as an occupational disease is getting scientific confirmation and protecting both sides' legitimate rights. The confirmation must come after accurate and scientific investigation and analysis, so that when workers are compensated, they'll obtain their benefits without fail; and if it is not the employers' responsibility, businesses will not be held accountable.

He Yonghai (Qilu Evening News): In the official statement, chronic diseases such as cervical spondylosis are referred to as diseases that employees themselves have to take care of. Since it is not yet one of those officially recognized occupational diseases, even if employees are diagnosed with spondylosis, they can't seek compensation.

Some have suggested that if employers can't prove that the work or the work environment is not the cause of employees' chronic disease, the disease should be considered occupational. This is unfair to employers if their employees' personal lifestyles are mostly responsible for the disease.

Some experts have suggested that spondylosis be classified as an occupational disease, but so far, there is no official commitment. The proposal serves as a warning for people so that they take precautions against such chronic diseases. Everybody is supposed to be responsible for his or her own health, as well as the health of his or her family.

With the emergence of new professions, the catalogue of occupational diseases should be expanded to fully cover the working population in various sectors. Whatever action needs to be taken, there must first be sufficient scientific investigation to protect employees' rights as well as employers' interests. To some extent, implementing the current catalogue of occupational diseases is more important than including cervical spondylosis on the list.

An achievable goal

Mao Jianguo (Shandong Business Daily): Though it's not an easy job to put cervical spondylosis on the list of officially recognized occupational diseases, still, many things can be done to achieve this goal. For example, if the ratio of workers in a company diagnosed with a disease far exceeds the social average, it basically indicates that this company is not doing well in protecting the health of its staff. In this case, designating this disease as an occupational disease related to the work this company does is an obvious choice.

Official recognition of occupational diseases enables patients to get compensation and will also compel employers to improve the work environment to reduce the incidence of such diseases. But in reality, instead of trying to provide a better environment, some employers insist on overtime work, regardless of the staff's health. Apart from cervical spondylosis, even some neurological diseases are closely connected to corporate culture.

Expanding the list of recognized occupational diseases will help counter deterioration in corporate culture vis-a-vis employees' health. People prefer to have no diseases at all rather than to get compensation for treating a disease incurred due to workplace conditions. The biggest stumbling block to classifying cervical spondylosis as an occupational disease is not technical but people's health sense.

Ding Shenyi (www.eastday.com): In the past, occupational diseases were related to manual work while exposed to a toxic environment. Today, though many people work in front of the computer and not in a toxic environment, they still do not feel any more relaxed than those engaged in manual labor. This can be proven by the rising cases of cervical spondylosis, lumbar diseases and eye problems among office workers. China's Law on Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases needs to be updated. Maybe it's impossible to have all sectors across the country accept that cervical spondylosis is an occupational disease, but it's still possible to try this out in a limited number of sectors or workplaces.

The controversy stems from the complexity of diseases like cervical spondylosis and frozen shoulder. Apart from work conditions, the modern way of living and entertainment has also contributed to these diseases. It's really hard to judge their real cause technically.

However, technical drawbacks should not be an excuse for delaying the classification of occupational diseases. Pilot programs can be introduced first in big cities and Internet and tech firms such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, which are wealthy enough to offer compensation for occupational diseases. Special institutions should be set up to judge the diseases and their causes.

Unlike conventional occupational diseases which are usually difficult to prevent because of long-time exposure to a toxic environment, cervical spondylosis can be prevented by reducing work pressure and doing more physical exercise. If companies want to protect their staff's health, they should encourage innovation to boost work efficiency instead of prodding them to work overtime.

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar