Only a few days ago, since this column raised the issue of the alarming rate

of deaths in our country in recent times through murder, road accidents and suicides, three miners were killed when a mining pit caved in at Aranka.
This tragedy certainly raises the issue of whether local mining is carried out in accordance with the standard safety and health regulations. While we have not had frequent serious mining accidents the probability of having them now will increase because of the intensification and expansion of mining activities in recent years.
While the bodies and authorities responsible for overseeing the mining industry need to step up their monitoring and policing activities, it is also equally important that owners of mining operations abide by the established safety measures and standards.
In this particular tragic accident it is too early to determine what was responsible for the caving in of the mining pit. Only a complete and thorough investigation will be able to pronounce definitively. Nevertheless, intensified attention is needed with regards to occupational safety and health standards in the mining industry with a view to prevent a recurrence of such a tragedy.
Safety in the mining industry is increasingly becoming a serious global concern and, therefore, we in Guyana cannot become complacent because if we do we are putting lives and limbs at grave risk.
According to international experts thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially in the process of coal mining and hard rock mining. Generally speaking, surface mining usually is less hazardous than underground mining.
Most of the deaths today occur in developing countries, especially China. China’s coal mines are the world’s deadliest, killing an average of 13 miners a day. China accounted for the largest number of coal-mining fatalities, accounting for about 80% of the world’s total, although it produced only 35% of the world’s coal.
As a comparison, annual coal mining deaths numbered more than 1,000 a year in the early part of the 20th century in the US. They decreased to an average of about 450 annual fatalities in the 1950s and to 141 in the 1970s. The yearly average in coal mining decreased to 30 fatalities from 2001-2005, and some 60 to 70 miners still die each year in the US coal and non-coal mining industry.
The ILO also notes that gravitation towards a Green Economy does not make jobs healthier and safer.
In a report, entitled “Promoting Safety and Health in a Green Economy,” the ILO says that while promoting a greener, low-carbon economy provides many benefits to the environment and society, it does not necessarily make jobs healthier and safer. Occupational risks must be identified and managed from the start.
“Awareness on the impact of new and emerging risks linked to green jobs is necessary,” the report says. “There is an unprecedented opportunity to guarantee, from the onset, that green jobs are safe and healthy for workers, and, at the same time, that they minimize negative impacts on the environment and communities.”
According to the report, released in advance of World Day for Safety and Health at Work (April 28), “green jobs” refer to jobs protecting biodiversity and occupations that play a central role in “greening” industries, from mining and agriculture to industry and services, such as transport.
The report looks at occupational risks in both traditional sectors, such as mining, forestry and construction, and in new, green industries, such as solar and wind energy, hydropower and bio-energy. Traditional sectors will continue to provide the bulk of all employment, it notes, yet also contain most occupational health and safety risks. Making these industries more energy efficient and sustainable provides a major opportunity to make these sectors safer and healthier.