What are the Health Hazards of Mining?
The health risks of mining go far beyond dramatic disasters. Every day, miners face exposure to harmful dust, chemicals, noise, vibration, and more. These hazards can lead to lifelong conditions if left unchecked. But the good news? Many of these risks can be managed or prevented with proper safety protocols and training. Let’s take a closer look at the most common health hazards in mining and how to protect against them.
How Dangerous Is Mine Work?
While mining isn’t nearly as dangerous as it was a hundred years ago, it remains in the top ten most dangerous occupations in the U.S. despite safety regulations and enforcement, coming in at number 9.
The fatality rate for miners is more than five times that of the national average. Mining claims 20.1 lives per 100,000 workers every year, typically working out to between 25 and 30 mining deaths per year, though 2023 was a particularly deadly year.
While coal miners used to make up the majority of mining fatalities, their rates have dropped sharply in the last two decades. Meanwhile, fatality rates in metal/nonmetal (MNM) mines have gone up, including operations like crushed stone mines and sand and gravel mines.
7 Common Mining Health Risks
Here are seven frequently encountered dangers of mining in the modern world.
#1: Mobile Equipment Hazards
There are inherent dangers to operating heavy machinery, power tools, and hand tools, all of which are common in mining work. Mines complicate the regular dangers further with limited space and visibility, increasing the likelihood of the equipment hitting something or someone.
In fact, machinery and powered haulage accidents typically account for about half of all mining fatalities. Haul truck accidents are the most common. According to one study, 54% of these incidents were caused by the haul truck colliding with an environmental hazard (like driving off a vertical drop.
Other types of heavy equipment hazards involve personnel getting struck, caught, crushed, or pushed into a fall by equipment.
#2: Explosions and Fire Hazards
There’s a higher risk of explosions or fires in a mine than in many other workplaces. They accounted for a quarter of mining-related deaths between 2006 and 2011, experiencing a resurgence in frequency from decades past.
Controlled explosions are still used in mining to blast apart rocks and expose mineral deposits, and this is dangerous enough. Unfortunately, mining also provides the perfect atmosphere for accidental fires and explosions.
First, it’s not uncommon for a combustible atmosphere to develop in a mine due to the nature of confined spaces. There are flammable gases like methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide, as well as fine particulate matter. All fine dust particles can be combustible at high enough concentrations, but some materials, particularly coal dust, are also inherently flammable.
As these gases and particulate matter accumulate due to poor ventilation, this creates an environment where a single ignition source can trigger a fire or explosion. Mines aren’t lacking in those, either, from the friction of conveyor belts or excavation work to the sparks created by the operation of powered equipment.
Long and limited evacuation routes out of a mine complicate miners’ ability to get to safety and seek medical help after such an incident. That’s why – in addition to measures that reduce ignition sources and the buildup of combustibles – the MSHA requires first aid gear and fire extinguishers to be available in key locations throughout a mine.
#3: Ground Control Hazards
Ground control hazards like mine collapse, landslides, and rockfalls are still serious dangers of mining. Though the MSHA’s prevention and mitigation requirements have made them less deadly than they used to be, they’re still a fairly common occurrence. Between 2000 and 2021, there were 27,520 such accidents reported to the MSHA, resulting in 122 fatalities, 65 instances of permanent disability, and over 8,600 other injury cases.
Ground control mining hazards hit coal mines harder than other types of miners. They’re historically responsible for half of all coal mining fatalities, and the majority of the ground control fatalities in recent decades belong to coal mines.
#4: Slips, Trips, and Falls
OSHA – a sister safety organization to the MSHA – often emphasizes the danger of fall hazards by including them in the Fatal Four, and the risks are no less prominent in mining.
Slips, trips, and falls (STF) cause 10% of surface mining fatalities and are the second leading cause of non-fatal mining injuries, accounting for 22% of the total. Common injuries associated with these incidents include cuts, lacerations, sprains, and broken bones.
Hazardous terrain, poor lighting, floor openings, and cluttered work areas are all factors frequently seen in a mining operation that contribute to the likelihood of an STF accident.
#5: Dust Inhalation
No matter what type of mine you work in, dust inhalation will be a threat to your health. As mining disturbs the earth, fine particles rise into the air and make their way into our lungs, a risk made more likely by the enclosed spaces and poor ventilation frequently encountered in mines.
When most people think of mines and dust inhalation, they think of coal and black lung disease, so it may surprise you to learn that there are even more dangerous types of mining dust, including heavy metal dust and asbestos.
Actually, silica dust is one of the most common mining health risks, largely because it makes up 59% of the earth’s crust by mass. It’s common in soil, quartz, granite, and 95% of other known rocks. In other words, it’s impossible to avoid when digging in the ground. It’s 20 times more toxic than coal dust (and common in the quartz rock surrounding a coal seam). There have been more than 4,000 cases of silica-caused lung disease since 2010. As a result, the MSHA tightened protections from silica dust last year, cutting the permissible exposure limit by half. The new rules impose monitoring on many types of mines, including MNM mines that have never been held to similar rules.
What are the long-term health effects of coal dust exposure and the like?
Most notably, dust exposure causes several different types of lung disease. The most infamous is coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), colloquially known as black lung, while silica dust causes silicosis – both of these conditions are incurable, disabling, and often fatal. CWP alone killed over 10,000 U.S. miners between 1995 and 2004. Dust inhalation also puts miners at greater risk of chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), dust-related diffuse fibrosis (DDF), and pathologic emphysema. These conditions are sometimes lumped together into a catchall category known as Coal Mine Dust Lung Disease (CMDLD).
In addition to CMDLD, coal miners’ dust inhalation puts them at increased risk for both lung cancer and stomach cancer.
The effects of dust inhalation can only be treated, not cured, so prevention is essential. This means that mining operations should have dust suppression, dilution, redirection, and capture measures in place.
#6: Toxic Gases and Oxygen Depletion
Dust inhalation and combustible gases aren’t the only atmospheric hazards in a mine.
First, the depletion of oxygen within a confined space can be dangerous and deadly. As people breathe and chemical reactions like oxidation take place, breathable oxygen gets used up without any ready replacement from outside. This can cause dizziness, headaches, unconsciousness, and eventually asphyxiation.
Toxic gases are also common in mining work, and as with everything else, the poor ventilation of confined spaces makes them more hazardous. Common mining health risks in this category include:
- Carbon monoxide from equipment exhaust and incomplete coal combustion
- Carbon dioxide as a result of fossil fuel combustion, explosions, coal oxidation, decomposition of timber, and human respiration
- Hydrogen sulfide generated during gunpowder combustion
- Sulfur dioxide generated during the explosion of sulfuric ore
- Nitric oxide and derivatives from nitrogen explosions and diesel engine exhaust
- Rarer gases specific to certain types of mining, like radioactive and carcinogenic radon gas
Proper ventilation, atmospheric monitoring, and protective respiratory equipment are all important to deal with these mining hazards.
#7: Heat Stress
Mining jobs are physically demanding, which increases the body’s heat production and requires heavy protective gear, which reduces the body’s ability to dissipate heat.
This puts miners at risk of prolonged exposure to overheating, especially in climates that are already hot and humid. This thermal stress can cause life-threatening heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and cardiovascular strain.
Mines should regularly monitor environmental conditions and teach workers about the signs and dangers of heat-related illnesses. Miners under heat stress need access to cool rest areas, sufficient hydration, and frequent breaks.
Learn to Safely Work in a Mine with MSHA Training Online
Although this blog post is a great introduction to mining hazards and health risks, it's not a replacement for formal mine safety training.
The MSHA requires safety training for new miners and returning miners, as well as annual refresher training. Luckily, they allow you to complete the required courses online whenever and wherever it’s convenient for you. We offer MSHA Part 46 training, including courses that address how to protect yourself from all the mining health risks we discussed above and many more.
