Land mines exhibition opens

CHICAGO, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A two-day national conference on land mines being held in Chicago is using dozens of deactivated devices to demonstrate the difficulty of spotting them.

The decoys are buried beneath wood chips and dirt, reports the Chicago Tribune. The conference is organized by the U.S. State Department and the Chicago Coalition for Landmine Action to raise awareness of the problems with land mines.

The deactivated devices on display range from the size of a can of shoe polish that can blow off legs and arms to anti-vehicular mines the size of hubcaps, which can create deadly blasts reaching up to 200 feet away, the Tribune reported.

Experts estimate that there are 40 million to 50 million abandoned mines in about 90 countries. Topping the list of those countries are Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Iraq and Vietnam topping the list.

State Department expert James Lawrence said there are about 12,000 land-mine casualties annually, down from about 26,000 five years ago, the newspaper reported.