One Hundred Years of Federal Mining Safety and Health Research

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• Bureau demonstration of rescue apparatus and training of miners in first aid had led to the rescue of 200 men after mine disasters and strengthened the movement for increasing safety in all industries. • A Bureau investigation in cooperation with the Public Health Service in Missouri had revealed an excessively high mortality from tuberculosis and the importance of siliceous dust in mine air as a causative agent. • The Bureau had begun compiling statistics on mine accidents and fatalities based on the data provided by the states. Statistics were also collected on safety in metallurgical plants. 2.7 Expansion of the USBM in Pittsburgh Figure 19. Collapsible cage used for mine rescue. In 1915, the Bureau began construction of new buildings for its experiment station in Pittsburgh (see Figure 20). Adjacent to the then campus of the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now part of Carnegie-Mellon University), the new buildings were completed in 1917 and located on Forbes Avenue in Pittsburgh (see Figure 21). Also in 1915, the Bureau began a test in a commercial mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company to determine the efficiency of rock dust to render coal dust inert and prevent coal dust explosions. It was hoped that this method might be more efficient than the use of water for the same purpose on a large scale [USBM 1915]. 17
Figure 20. The USBM’s Forbes Avenue facility under construction, Pittsburgh, PA, circa 1915. Figure 21. The USBM’s completed Forbes Avenue building, Pittsburgh, PA, 1917. 2.8 Early Statistics on Mining Fatalities and Production In 1916, the Bureau published a report documenting mine safety trends from the earliest published reports to that time [Fay 1916]. In particular, this report compiled accident statistics from the states that had inspected mines from 1870 to 1914. Pennsylvania had fatality records reaching back to 1870 for anthracite mines and to 1877 for bituminous mines. By the time the Bureau was established in 1910, almost 90 percent of coal production came from states with mine inspectors who reported coal mine fatalities from their states. The Bureau’s report calculated that from 1839 to 1914, the total number of coal mining fatalities reported was 53,078 [Fay 1916]. The report also included USGS data on coal mine production and employment. Based on these data, the Bureau estimated that the number of fatalities in all U.S. coal mines up to that time totaled 61,187. Complete records for coal mine employment first became available in 1889, when the number of men employed in U.S. coal mines was 311,717. In that year, 90.8 percent of miners and 90.5 percent of coal production came from states with mine inspectors who reported mining fatalities. 18
Page 1 and 2: Department of Health and Human Serv
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Page 5 and 6: 4.3.7 Spokane Mining Research Labor
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other applications. The Libby mine
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6.2.8 Ground Control Ground falls i
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To facilitate the application of th
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on refuge alternatives [NIOSH, 2007
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6. Reduce ground failure fatalities
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7. Conclusion: Lessons Learned The
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8. References Amandus HE, Piacitell
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National Research Council and Insti
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Appendix A: Joseph A. Holmes Biogra
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Table 1. U.S. Bureau of Mines appro
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Table 3. Metal/Nonmetal Fatalities,
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One Hundred Years of Federal Mining Safety and Health Research

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