Time missed due to mining injuries increases even as number of injuries decreases

The number of work days missed due to injury among U.S. miners is up sharply this decade. "From 2001 to 2008, the average injury cost a miner 48 days of missed work or restricted duty as he recovered from such trauma as an amputated limb, a broken bone, or a lost eye, according to Mine Safety and Health Administration records," Thomas Frank of USA Today reports. "That figure is up 45 percent from the years 1983 to 2000, when the average injury resulted in 33 days of missed regular duty."

USA Today's analysis looked at 550,000 injuries since 1983 that forced a miner to miss work. MSHA has recently touted increased mine safety as the overall number of injuries has decreased, Frank writes, but the agency's analysis fails to examine the severity of the injuries by looking at time missed. "It may be because people are less fit, or because medical care for these accidents is harder to get to," Patrick Coleman, a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health expert who studied mining accidents, told Frank.

In 2008 "MSHA recorded 1,200 instances of fallen overhead supports, 40 explosions from flammable gases or dust, and eight mine fires," Frank writes. During that same time, "more than 1,800 miners broke or chipped bones, 176 were crushed under rocks or machinery and 92 lost a body part such as a limb, finger or eye." (Read more)