ABSTRACT
Mining is undoubtedly the most hazardous industrial occupation. For instance, during the period 1980-89, mining ranked as the number one in USA with respect to the average annual rate of traumatic fatalities (with the rate of 31.91 for 100,000 workers), as against 25.61 for the construction industry, 23.30 for the transportation/ communications/public utilities industries, and 18.33 for the agriculture/forestry/ fishing industries. There are two kinds of health impacts associatedwithmining: immediate impacts such as accidents, and accumulative and progressive impacts such as stress and pneumoconiosis. Opencast mining is generally less hazardous than underground mining. Industrialised countries tend to use highly automated mining systems, which not only employ lesser number of workers (who have to be highly skilled), but also have the effect of drastically reducing the hazards to which they are exposed. Developing countries cannot afford such high-tech mining systems, so much so that mining accidents are a common occurrence in developing countries such as China and India. The severity of risk in the case of the mining industry is summarized in Table 3.4.1. The data regarding occupational illnesses in mining by sector (US data, 1995) is
summarized in Table 3.4.2. An examination of the statistical data (for USA, 1995) in regard to fatalities, nonfatal
days lost (NFDL), total accident incident rate, and severity measurements (SM) for underground and surface mines by sector (source: Grayson, 1999, p. 94) leads to the following conclusions: (1) Among all the mining activities for various minerals, the most hazardous is the underground mining of coal, (2) The underground mining of coal, metal and nonmetal has higher severity measure than the corresponding figures
for surface mining for the same minerals, (3) Surface mining of stone has a greater SM than underground mining of stone. On the basis of such analyses, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) targets sectors, mines and jobs to enforce the regulations. By making various improvements in mining technology and mining practices, USA
brought down the mining fatalities from 56 in 1990, to 47 in 2000, and to 23 in 2010. China produced 2.8 billion tonnes of coal in 2007, which is about 40% of the world’s production. The coal mining fatalities in China which used to be as high as 6,000 per annum, has been brought down to 3,215 in 2008. In the case of India, which is the third largest producer of coal, the coal mining fatalities came down from 200 in 2000 to 35 in 2005. Table 3.4.2 indicates that coal mining leads mining for other minerals in regard to
dust diseases of lungs and trauma disorders. By improving the working conditions in the mines, the number of silicosis cases per year came down from 857.4 during 196878 to 284.5 in 1991-92 in USA. Similarly, the number of cases of pneumoconiosis per year, which was 2374.8 in 1968-78, was brought down to 1852.0 per year in 1991-92. The main environmental consequences of the mining projects are shown in
Figure 3.4.1.
