Injuries and fatalities in Colombian mining emergencies (2005 - 2018)

BackgroundDuring the last decades several developed countries reported a decrease in the occurrence of mining injuries. Mining is a very important sector of Colombias economy without analyses of injuries and fatalities in mining emergencies. ObjectiveThis study describes the occurrence of mining emergencies in Colombia between 2005 and 2018, and their principal characteristics. MethodsAn ecological study was performed with the mining emergencies registered by the National Mining Agency between 2005 and 2018. The study described the place of occurrence, type of event, legal status and type of mines, mineral extracted, and number of injuries and fatalities. Benfords law was used to explore the quality of the data. ResultsA total of 1,235 emergencies occurred, with 751 injured workers and 1,364 fatalities. The majority of emergencies were from collapses, polluted air, and explosions, most of which occurred in coal (77.41%), gold (18.06%), and emerald (1.38%) mines. Many emergencies occurred in illegal mines (27.21%), most of which were gold, construction materials, emerald, and coal. Illegal mines had a higher relative proportion of injuries and fatalities than legal mines (p<0.05). Mining disasters are likely to be underreported given that Benfords Law was not satisfied. ConclusionsColombia is a country with increasing mining activity, where the occurrence of mining emergencies, injuries, and fatalities is growing. This is the first one full description of mining emergencies in Colombia with the few available data.