Estimating the mortality burden of large scale mining projects-Evidence from a prospective mortality surveillance study in Tanzania.

Isaac Lyatuu,Georg Loss,Günther Fink,Dominik Dietler,Mirko S Winkler,Andrea Farnham,Francesco Chirico

doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0000008

Abstract

We set up a mortality surveillance system around two of the largest gold mines in Tanzania between February 2019 and February 2020 to estimate the mortality impact of gold mines. Death circumstances were collected using a standardized verbal autopsy tool, and causes of death were assigned using the InSilicoVA algorithm. We compared cause-specific mortality fractions in mining communities with other subnational data as well as national estimates. Within mining communities, we estimated mortality risks of mining workers relative to other not working at mines. At the population level, mining communities had higher road-traffic injuries (RTI) (risk difference (RD): 3.1%, Confidence Interval (CI): 0.4%, 5.9%) and non-HIV infectious disease mortality (RD: 5.6%, CI: 0.8%, 10.3%), but lower burden of HIV mortality (RD: -5.9%, CI: -10.2%, -1.6%). Relative to non-miners living in the same communities, mining workers had over twice the mortality risk (relative risk (RR): 2.09, CI: 1.57, 2.79), with particularly large increases for death due to RTIs (RR: 14.26, CI: 4.95, 41.10) and other injuries (RR:10.10, CI: 3.40, 30.02). Our results shows that gold mines continue to be associated with a large mortality burden despite major efforts to ensure the safety in mining communities. Given that most of the additional mortality risk appears to be related to injuries programs targeting these specific risks seem most desirable.

Highlights

Extractive industry projects have the potential to trigger improvements in socio-economic status and public infrastructure at the local level, along with generating tax and royalty incomes at the national and sub-national levels [1]
The study was conducted in two mining areas: (1) the Geita Gold Mine (GGM) in Geita Town Council (TC), Geita Region; and (2) the Bulyanhulu Gold Mine (BGM) in Msalala District Council (DC), Shinyanga Region
While the results from the verbal autopsy (VA) data analysis show that overall mortality patterns in the mining communities were relatively similar to the subnational estimates from the Iringa VA implementation study and national estimates using Global Burden of Disease (GBD) numbers, we found that mining areas had a higher incidence of mortality from road-traffic injuries (RTI) and non-HIV infectious diseases and a lower incidence of HIV mortality compared to other parts of Tanzania, as well as Tanzania overall

Summary

Introduction

Extractive industry projects have the potential to trigger improvements in socio-economic status and public infrastructure at the local level, along with generating tax and royalty incomes at the national and sub-national levels [1]. This potential source of development is relevant for the African continent, which is endowed with over 30% of the world’s global mineral reserves [2] and features the highest rates of poverty globally [3]. The mortality data is not publicly available because it contains individual level information. Making this data publicly available would breach compliance with the protocol approved by the local research ethics board

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion