The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), as part of its effort to improve the safety and health of American workers, tracks the number and rates of work-related injuries, fatalities, and disease for the mining labor force. Since 1986, there has been little research on the demographics of the nation’s miners, such as age, gender, job title, and years of mining experience. These data are needed to understand the risk of work-related injuries and disease, and to customize safety and health interventions for specific subgroups of the mining industry. To fill this data gap, the NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory is conducting a national survey of mining operations and their employees. The participation of each selected mining operation is vital to the success of the survey.

Objectives

The objectives of the survey are to:

• Collect basic information about mining operations.
• Establish the demographic and occupational characteristics of mine operator employees for each mining sector (coal, metal, nonmetal, stone, and sand and gravel); and
• Estimate the number and occupational characteristics of independent contractor employees used by mining operations.

Description

There are two sets of data being collected:

1. The mine questions include items about the mining operation such as its use of independent contractors, work schedules, and safety and communication measures.
2. The employee questions include demographic and occupational questions about mine employees.

Only NIOSH researchers and researchers from Westat, NIOSH’s data collection contractor, will see the survey responses. The mining operation will not be reporting the names or other identifying information for its individual employees. Only summary information will be published so that no single company or individual employee can be identified.

Want to Know More?

View and/or print a copy of the National Survey of the Mining Population "Questions and Answers" Brochure (PDF, 112 MB).

If you would like further information, please contact:

Linda J. McWilliams, Project Director
CDC, NIOSH, Pittsburgh Research Laboratory
P.O. Box 18070
Pittsburgh, PA 15236-0070
Telephone: 412-386-6116
e-mail: LMcWilliams@cdc.gov

or

Westat
Attn: National Mining Survey
1650 Research Boulevard
Room TC-1046F
Rockville, MD 20850
Telephone: 888-814-4707