Opinion: Getting Some Perspective on the Montcoal Mining Tragedy

(April 6) -- The Montcoal, W.Va., coal mine explosion -- like other mine tragedies before it -- has served once again to remind everyone of how risky the mining business is.

At least, that's how the story is being reported in various news outlets. Examples:

A West Virginia Public Broadcasting story leads with: "As news of the Raleigh County mine explosion continues to unfold this morning, many people across the country are reminded how dangerous coal mining can be."

A Bloomberg story filed Tuesday, quotes Energy Secretary Steven Chu saying, "Coal has gotten safer and safer," but "it's still dangerous business."

In a Newsweek blog post, David A. Graham says the explosion "is a reminder that coal mining is still one of the world's most dangerous professions."

To be sure, trying to extract coal from tunnels buried deep underground is inherently dangerous. But tragic events like this, and the intense coverage and commentary they generate, tend to paint a misleading picture about the hazards of modern mining.

The fact is that, thanks to concerted industry and government safety efforts, coal mining has become significantly safer over the years. Over the past decade, there was an average of 32 coal mining deaths a year, compared with 266 in the 1960s. It's reached the point now where mining is far less hazardous than many other professions, some of which few would consider inherently dangerous.

Every year, the U.S. Department of Labor compiles workplace fatality statistics. Some of the most dangerous occupations (by deaths per 100,000 workers) in 2008 were:

Fishing -- 128.9
Logging -- 115.7
Pilots and flight engineers -- 72.4
Iron and steel workers -- 46.4
Farmers and ranchers -- 39.5
Garbage and recycling collectors -- 36.8
Roofers -- 34.4
Power-line installers and repairers -- 29.8
Traveling salesmen and truckers -- 22.8
Taxi drivers and chauffeurs -- 19.3

By comparison, the fatality rate for coal mining last year was 18 deaths per 100,000 workers. Not only is mining not the most dangerous job, but it doesn't even rank in the top 10. To put it another way, garbage collecting is almost twice as hazardous as mining. (The mining fatality rate will, it's worth noting, be higher this year as a result of the Montcoal tragedy.)

But deaths in these other professions rarely occur in the dramatic and terrible way mine disasters do. It's unlikely, for example, that the 317 farmers and ranchers who perished on the job in 2008 made headlines outside their hometown.

What's more, it's the relative scarcity of mining fatalities that drives so much of the public interest and concern about mine safety. It's akin to the way we treat plane crashes (which killed 1,104 people worldwide last year) compared with car crashes (which killed more than 31,000 in the U.S. alone).

None of this is meant to take anything away from the terrible loss suffered by the families and friends of the miners lost in West Virginia, or the need for continued improvement and vigorous enforcement of mine safety rules, or the need to severely punish anyone whose negligence contributed to these deaths.

But there's only so much time and energy to go around, and the more time and energy the public spends focusing on mine safety, the less time and energy it will have to focus on improving worker safety in other, far more deadly occupations.

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