By ALISON ANIS
PRELIMINARY findings on identifying better health risk management systems in resources projects revealed that the number of deaths caused by mining-related illnesses and those that occurred in surrounding areas was bigger than deaths from mine injuries.
The findings from a research conducted by Mathew Hancock, a PhD student at the University of Queensland, showed that the times lost to illness may be between 10 and 40 times greater than time lost to injuries.
Mr Hancock presented his findings on the third day of the week-long seminar organised by the Chamber of Mines and Petroleum at Crowne Plaza in Port Moresby yesterday.
He said the paper titled “Paths of Development for Health Risk Management Systems in PNG Resource Projects” was part of his evaluation for thesis.
The research was conducted in three major mine sites namely, Pogera, Ok Tedi and Lihir.
The study covered four areas which included communicable diseases and the mining industry, communicable disease risk management systems, communicable disease risk management maturity model and maturity evaluations in PNG.
Mr Hancock said diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were evident in mining areas but did not give updated statistics on these cases.
“The burden of disease in PNG mining industry and the direct and indirect costs of disease would seem to justify the use of the risk management approach to managing communicable diseases.”