Diseases-attributable disability-adjusted life years in copper and molybdenum ore workers in Mongolia: 1999–2019

ABSTRACT

Most illnesses and deaths in industry workers are associated with occupational diseases (ODs). In recent years, mining has grown rapidly into a major driver of the Mongolian economy. In this study, the organization-based registry data on OD incidence and mortality from the archival data of the ‘Erdenet’ Copper and Molybdenum Concentrator Plant in Mongolia were used. We estimated the ODs burden in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) loss between 1999 and 2019. A total of 72,802 DALYs were lost over 20 years, of which 97.5% were due to years lived with disability and 2.5% for years of life lost. The disease burden was high in men, accounting for 76.8% of total DALY. In terms of age groups, among people aged 46–55, DALY accounted for the largest percentage of losses. We found that workplace dust, noise, ergonomics, and vibration were the main factors attributed to the DALYs during the past two decades.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational disease
• disability-adjusted life years
• contractor workers
• copper and molybdenum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Institutional review board statement

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences (protocol code 2019/3–13).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.