Antipersonnel Land Mines: A Vector for Human Suffering

• Landmines
• War
• Civilian population
• Multiple trauma

Antipersonnel land mines are an epidemic afflicting the world's poorest, war-wrecked nations, maiming and killing scores of civilians each year. Sleeping in the soil of over 88 countries, these mines are deadly remnants of past and present armed conflict (1). Not only do they kill or injure more than 2000 people per month, their very presence stymies efforts by developing nations to reclaim land for industry and agriculture.

Although antipersonnel land mines date back to at least the U.S. Civil War, their use did not become widespread until World War II (2). In the 1960s, the United States, which used mines extensively in Vietnam, developed “scatterable” mines that could be spread quickly over large areas by being dropped from aircraft or delivered in artillery shells. This change in technology and means of delivery magnified and expanded the horror these weapons had already wrought on five continents.

Published studies, including Land Mines in Cambodia: The Coward's War(3), have helped show the full impact of land mine casualties. Among other findings, these reports documented the stark reality that many victims never receive medical care. Most developing countries lack the transportation infrastructure, communication technologies, and emergency medical systems needed to transport patients rapidly after land mine injury. Investigators have interviewed victims who had no option but to complete their own amputations with a knife.

Many land mine victims die because rescuers are not trained on how to enter minefields. This results in further casualties when rescuers step on other mines during the rescue. If survivors reach medical professionals at all, they often do so days after the …