Citation

Jiang J, Li L. Chin. J. Traumatol. 2015; 18(1): 1-4.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Chinese Medical Association)

DOI

10.1016/j.cjtee.2015.01.001

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Natural disasters are happening more and more frequently in recent years. During the 20th century, especially in the last 30 years, millions of people have died or become disabled from earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos erupting, tornadoes, mud sliding, floods and other disasters. China is a large country with a vast territory and complex geological structures. Since environment destruction has intensified in recent years, natural disasters have become increasingly frequent in China, which has caused tens of millions of casualties and more than 10 trillion yuan in economic losses. Earthquake is the most common type of natural disasters, with 1/3 of the total happening in China. Also, the number of people that have died from earthquakes in China accounts for half of the total number in the world. It is noteable to say that in recent years the number of large earthquakes has increased exponentially. During 2001-2008, there were about 1231 earthquakes with a magnitude over 6.0, including 115 times with a magnitude over 7.0 and 15 times over 8.0. This is 4 times higher than the average level of every other 10 year period in the 20th century. From 2008 to 2011, there were more than 7376 earthquakes each year, an obvious increase. Large earthquakes happened 119 times, and ¾ of the earthquakes were above the level of 7.0.1 So, it is of significant meaning to carry out medical rescues in response to disasters to reduce disaster-related casualties and disabilities, to prevent secondary disasters and public health events derived from the disasters....

Language: en