Mine Health and Safety: Industry\u27s March Towards Continuous Improvement in the United States Experience

For the period 1980-1989, mining still ranked as the number one United States industry with respect to the average annual rate of traumatic occupational fatalities (Anonymous 1993). Its rate (per 100 000 workers) was 31.91 versus 25.61 for the construction industry, 23.30 for the transportation/communications/public utilities industries, and 18.33 for the agriculture/forestry/fishing industries. The next highest figure was three times lower at 6.73. The largest causes of death were machines (7.39 fatalities per 100 000 workers), motor vehicles (5.27), struck by falling objects (4.33), explosions (2.46), electrocutions (2.27), and falls of persons (1.89). Mining\u27s death rates by machines, struck by falling objects, and explosions were the highest among all industries, while mining ranked second in death rates by motor vehicles (11.44 in transportation/communications/public utilities), electrocutions (3.99 in construction), and falls of persons (6.56 in construction)