Page 25 - Advances In Productive, Safe, and Responsible Coal Mining

12 Advances in Productive, Safe, and Responsible Coal Mining

of annual hours that miners worked, normalized by 200,000, which represents
100 miners working 2000h in a year. Since work hours were not available for the
period, the annual equivalent fatality incidence rate was calculated as the number
of fatalities divided by the number of miners times 2000h, normalized by 200,000.
In 1901, the total number of miners working solely in underground coal mines was
485,544. Deaths in those mines totaled 1574, giving a Fatal IR equiv of 0.324, which is
the starting point for comparison purposes. The number of working coal miners
increased steadily from 1901 through 1923, when it reached 862,536. In 1923,
2462 miners died in coal mines resulting in a Fatal IR equiv of 0.285. The decrease
was not steady during the period, but fluctuated dramatically with a high of 0.476
in 1907, when a record high of 3242 miners died, to a low of 0.235 in 1922. December
1907 was labeled “Bloody December” because of 17 disasters, including the worst one
historically in Monongah, West Virginia, where 367 miners lost their lives [2]. Vir-
tually all coal mine fatalities during this period occurred in underground mines; sur-
face mining having begun in 1915, when it accounted for only 0.6% of total US coal
production. By 1920, that percentage had only climbed to 1.5%.
The number of miners working in coal mines decreased steadily from 1923 to 1930,
when 644,006 miners were employed, again predominately in underground mines.
The number of fatalities decreased steadily as well, to 2063 in 1930, with one excep-
tion. In 1925, 2518 miners perished. This decrease represents a positive indicator of
improvement for the time period.

2.2.2 Safety and productivity performance: 1931–77
Production data are archived and available via the US Mine Safety and Health Admin-
istration (MSHA) website [3] for coal mines beginning in 1931, but hours worked by
miners are not. For this period, productivity can thus be measured as tons mined per
miner on an annual basis (i.e., tons/miner/year). Accordingly, annual productivity and
Fatal IR equiv data are presented for end-of-decade years (i.e., 1940, 1950, 1960, and
1970), which will reveal any progress, or lack thereof, made during this entire period
[3,4].
Table 2.1 reveals a dramatic decrease in the number of coal miners over the time
period. Also dramatic is the increase in the percent of coal mined by surface mining
methods, rising from 9.2% in 1940 to 43.8% in 1970. In spite of the decreasing number
of miners, production increased by 18.9% over the period. Primarily because of the
large increase in surface-mined coal, productivity dramatically increased over the
period. Unfortunately, safety performance (i.e., Fatal IR equiv ) virtually stagnated from
1960 to 1970 after halving between 1940 and 1950. The number of fatalities in the coal
industry fell below 1000 for the first time in 1946. From detailed data not presented
here, 1940–44 saw a steady increase in productivity from 831 to 1509tons/miner/year,
but 1945–49 realized a steady decrease. A sustained annual increase of productivity
occurred from 1950 at 1164tons/miner/year through 1969, peaking at 4270tons/
miner/year.
As productivity sustained improvement over the period, unfortunately mine disas-
ters (explosions and fires predominately) continued to occur catching the attention of