Title: A comparative study of coal mine safety performance indicators in China and the USA

Authors: A. Nieto; Y. Gao; L. Grayson; Gui Fu

Addresses: Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, State College, 16802, USA ' Faculty of Resources and Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China ' Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, State College, 16802, USA ' Faculty of Resources and Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China

Abstract: Safety performance indicators are the basis for effective accident statistics, playing a crucial role in accident analysis and prevention. To better understand China's safety performance indicators system, a comparative analysis of the coal mine safety performance indicators used in China and USA is introduced. The number of fatalities, the number of accidents and the fatality rate per million tons are usually used as the safety performance indicators by the Chinese government in the coal mining industry, whereas in the USA, the number of fatalities, the number of reportable injuries, the associated incidence rates, the number of lost work days and the severity measure are widely used for measuring accidents and injuries and the number of citations, S&S designated citations and orders are primarily used for measuring violations. On the basis of this comparative analysis, this paper proposes to establish the reportable injuries standard, the lost work days statistics standard and the unified violations standard in China.

Keywords: mining industry; coal mine safety; safety performance; statistical indicators; comparative study; safety indicators; China; United States; USA; accident statistics; reportable injuries.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2014.066578

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2014 Vol.5 No.4, pp.299 - 314

Received: 14 Nov 2013
Accepted: 10 Feb 2014
Published online: 26 Dec 2014 *

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