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Safety
By any measure, the U.S. mining industry has made significant advances in improving the health and safety of its skilled and highly-trained workforce. This improvement, documented statistically from several independent sources, has been sustained, significant and long-term, and is the result of seven key trends:
- A commitment by management, workers and regulators to a goal of zero fatalities and injuries;
- better equipment design;
- technological advances;
- conscientious safety awareness;
- improved engineering methods;
- advanced and continuous training;
- strong oversight and assistance from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The industry has made safety and health a core value, meaning that it is integrated into company operations from top to bottom, and evident in communications and procedures at the workplace. Recognizing that even one serious accident is too many, the mining industry today is better prepared than ever to achieve the ultimate goal of zero fatalities and injuries in the 21st century.
Continuous technological advances paired with a highly skilled workforce have allowed the coal mining industry to meet the nation’s growing energy requirements, while providing safer workplaces.
- Since 1970, coal production has increased 89 percent while fatal injuries have decreased by 81 percent.
- Injuries have fallen by two-thirds in the last 16 years.
- Over half of U.S. coal mines operate each year without a single lost work time injury.
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, coal mining is not even among the top 10 most dangerous occupations in America. Pilots, truck and taxi drivers, loggers, fishermen, roofers and other occupations face greater on the job risks than coal miners.
Coal mining is regulated under a comprehensive federal safety law (Federal Mine Safety and Health Act) that is administered by the Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
- Underground coal mines are thoroughly inspected at least four times a year.
- With 602 coal mine inspectors – about one for every 3.5 coal mines – MSHA spends on average over 200 hours annually inspecting each coal mine.
- MSHA and its inspectors:
- issue citations and establish a time frame for correcting violations;
- remove miners from all or part of a mine in the face of hazardous conditions or repeated failures to correct violations; and
- levy fines that increase with the severity of the violation.
- Coal miners can report violations and can request additional inspections and cannot lose their jobs for doing so.
See also NMA's Safety Statistics page.
