A Perspective on Progress

Generally, fataUty reduction is the most reUable statistic and measure of progress, especially since 1958 for the noncoal sectors, and we wiU use it here as the principal basis of comparison. Using injury or disease statistics makes sense only when reliable tracking systems are in place, along with standard definitions, which are stable over time. This didn t occur in the mining industry until after 1986, for injuries, when the MSHA definition of accident last changed. 

An examination of the fatal incident rate (IR) for the same time frames reveals the following average statistics  

These statistics show an order of magnitude improvement in the fatal IR over 8.5 decades. Here the fatal IR for a period gives the annual average number of fatalities per 100 workers. Prior to 1970, employee hours worked—the denominator used today for incident rates—cannot be reliably determined. 

As Table 1.3 shows, a modest reduction of 9.4% occurred in the total mining fatal IR during four 5-year periods following the estabhshment of the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1910. After an initial reduction of 4.9% in the incident rate from the 1911-1915 period to the 1916-1920 period, and of 15.0% from 1916-1920 to 1921-1925, the tide turned and the incident rate increased by 12.0% in the 1926-1930 period. The proportion of fatalities for the coal sector increased from 75% to nearly 83% over the 20-year period. Reflective of these proportions, the number of fatahties in noncoal mining fell 43.1%, while they were reduced in coal by only 11.2%. As we saw in Table 1.2, mining employment dropped approximately 10% to about 900,000. 

Whatever the causes, tremendous reductions were achieved for both sectors, although coal continued to account for 87% of the fatalities. Coal fatalities dropped 44.5% from 2,235 to 1,241 per year in the previous 5-year period (as shown in Table 1.2). Noncoal fatahties dropped 60.9% from 463 to 181. Although total mining employment dropped 22.7% to 700,000, this was definitely a breakthrough period for mine health and safety as the major improvement in the fatal IR shows. 

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