Team:TU Delft-Leiden/Human Practices/landmines

Case study: Detecting Landmines using ELECTRACE

The proof of principle for our microbial-based system represents landmines detection. In this section we will provide the main arguments why this application was chosen, by looking at the current problems caused by landmines worldwide. In addition various ethical considerations arising by using ELECTRACE as a system to detect landmines will be discussed and considered

Global problem -landmines

Land mines pollution and unwanted explosions represents a major problem nowadays, when several countries are heavily contaminated. More than 15000 people are killed or maimed by landmines each year [1] mostly on the developing countries [2]. Due to the nature of the modern conflicts, the number of civilian casualties caused by mines has heavility increased. As a comparison, during the World War I, 15 % of all fatalities were civilians, and this number increased to 65% in the World War II, including the Holocaust. Nowadays, more than 90% that are injured in hostilities are civilians [1]. Even the purpose of using mines has changed. Sometimes they are laid to deprive a location population access to water sources, wood and fuel. Within mine affected communities, the highest level of danger is faced by the “base of pyramid” people (people from developing countries, that live with 2$ or less/day). They need to ramble widely in search for fresh water, fuel and wood, increasing the danger of entering unmarked minefilds [2]. This scenario is even more dramatic, given the fact that landmines do not differentiate between the foot of a combatant from that of a playing child. They are “weapon of mass destruction in slow motion” that goes beyond any peace agreements. The impact of our project is not limited to a narrow geographical area, but widens to all the affected areas. Currently, all over the world there are ten countries with very heavy contamination (>100 〖km〗^2), including: Chile, Columbia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Thailand [3]. More than 350 models of landmines are currently available, not only to official armies, but to all fighting groups. Although several world-wide organizations are trying to change the perception towards landmines, and to diminish the negative effects caused by it, the problem still persists. The number of un-exploded bombs around the globe is unknown. This leads to an opportunity to find a solution a more efficient manner -ELECTRACE.

References

[1] Gino, S. (1996). The Horror of Landmines. Scientific American

[2] Michael, C., John, G., & John, T. (2007). The Value of Statistical Life and the Economics of Landmine Clearance in Developing Countries. World Development, 512-531

[3] he-monitor. (n.d.). Contamination. Retrieved from the-monitor.org: http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?url=lm/2013/maps/minecontamination.html