TY - JOUR T1 - World at work: Manufacturing “Tatami” mats in China JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine JO - Occup Environ Med SP - 372 LP - 373 DO - 10.1136/oem.2003.011270 VL - 61 IS - 4 AU - G-B Xiao AU - K Morinaga AU - R-Y Wang AU - X Zhang AU - Z-H Ma Y1 - 2004/04/01 UR - http://oem.bmj.com/content/61/4/372.abstract N2 - Exposure to dust may cause respiratory problems Tatami matting produced from rush is used in almost all households in Japan. Now, most matting products are imported from China. Rush cultivation and processing began in the 1980s in China, being introduced from Japan. In 1999, the cultivation area had increased to 5980 hectares, and exports of matting to Japan were 45 000 metres in a local area of China. Chinese researchers have recently found some serious occupational hazards in the industry. To keep the colour of the mat, the raw rush mat has to be initially smeared with mud … ER -