Cananea cooper mine: Is it safe for workers?

This study identified and evaluated hazards at the open-pit Copper mine in Cananea, Mexico, where twelve hundred miners began a strike in July, 2007. Last October, a bi-national team of occupational health and safety volunteers organized by the Maquiladora Health and Safety Support Network (MHSSN) conducted a workplace health and safety assessment and lung function tests with 68 of the striking miners, participated in a four-hour walk-through visit of the mine, and collected a bulk dust sample that was later analyzed for content and particle size distribution. The findings revealed that occupational health and safety remains neglected in this mine. A lack of preventive maintenance, a failure to repair equipment and correct visible safety hazards, and a conspicuous lack of basic housekeeping have created an environment where workers have been exposed to high levels of toxic dusts and acid mists and required to operate malfunctioning and poorly maintained equipment. Semi-quantitative calculations indicated that workers in the Concentrator area are exposed to respirable quartz silica ten times greater than the Mexican Maximum Permissible Exposure Limit (LMPE) of 0.1 mg/m3. A comprehensive medical surveillance program has not been established by the company to determine the health status of workers. The OHS survey team concluded that serious health and safety hazards at the Cananea mine operation require immediate and long-term corrections to guarantee basic workers' rights and protect workers from both accidents and chronic exposures. Survey results and recommendations will be discussed within the sociopolitical context of labor relations in Mexico.