Injuries, illnesses, and fatal injuries in mining in 2010 Fatal
injuries in the mining industry declined throughout the 20th
century. From 1900 to 1945 there were more than 1,000 fatal
injuries every year in coal mining alone, according to the U.S.
Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration
(MSHA).1 Since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began
collecting fatal injury data in 1992, there have been no more
than 60 fatal injuries in coal mining in any given year, and
fewer than 200 fatal injuries per year for all workers in the
mining industry as a whole. Despite such improvements, fatal
injury rates in mining remain more than four times higher than
the average for all industries, and high-profile accidents
continue to make headlines. The explosion in the Upper Big
Branch coal mine in West Virginia in April 2010 took the lives
of 29 workers, which was more than the total number of fatal
injuries in coal mining in 2009.2 Also in April 2010, an
explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon of