Causes of mining accidents in Turkey and the occupational health and safety measures should be taken

Abstract

Turkey, the world has the potential to produce at least 30 kinds from the 90 kinds of operable mineral. These minerals cannot be used sufficiently and they are left to the initiative of the private sector. National resources cannot be safely evaluated due to the lack of necessary inspections and insufficient occupational safety measures. In our country, some kind of public oriented efforts are carried out by means of either legal regulations or precautions and measures for the purposes of preventing new disasters. However, it is observed that these efforts are insufficient compared to EU countries. The obvious example of this, in the last 35 years, in Germany, 2 fatal accidents happened in the mines, while this number has reached 928 fatal accidents in Turkey in the last 35 years. Most of these accidents were caused by gas and fire, and the remainder as a result of dent and crushing. In terms of occupational health and safety, Turkey is subject to 6331 No. Occupational Health and Safety Act published in 2012, Law No. 6580 enacted in 2014 and ILO Convention C176 which entered into force in 2015. However, it is understood from the accidents, that occurred in our country, that there is no study in compliance with these Laws and Conventions about mining in our country, especially in terms of ventilation. In this paper, it is dwelled on about in the mining operations ending with the accident in production activities, under what conditions, what issues should be considered and what measures to be taken.