NIOSH Fatalities Cost in Mining User's Guide

Overview

There are two ways to get started using the NIOSH Fatalities Cost in Mining: 1) selection of specific characteristics of the fatality or 2) loading a previously saved search.

Generating a societal cost estimate by selecting specific mining fatality criteria is a three-step process. In Step 1, the user defines a search, which consists of fatality characteristics. Fatality characteristics determine which fatalities are included in the report. In Step 2, the user chooses calculation options, which determine how costs are calculated. In Step 3, the user selects which type of report to generate, either a cost report or narrative report, and runs the report. If you select cost report, you have the option of designing your report with variables of interest. Your generated report may be exported to Excel or Word.

The current search selections are displayed at the bottom of each page and your search is updated to reflect your selections as you progress through the first two steps. At any time, you may use the buttons provided to Save search to file for future use or Clear form to reset all characteristics and options to their default values. A previously saved search file may be loaded back into the system on the home page, allowing users to skip the first two steps.

Use the < Back and Next > buttons on each page to step through the suggested workflow for defining a search. Alternatively, you may use the navigation menu on the left to go directly to a specific page.

Select your own search criteria

From the home page, click the Select your own criteria to make estimates button.

Step 1: Choose fatality characteristics

Users can choose from 16 sets of characteristics that are available across five pages:

• General
  • Year - Calendar year of accident.
  • State/U.S. Territory - State/U.S. Territory in which mine is located where accident occurred.
  • Age - Age of victim.
  • Sex - Sex of victim.
• Occupational
  • Occupation - These 30 job/occupation categories are based on a condensed MHSA’s job titles and occupation variables based on similar job characteristics.
• Accident
  • Accident classification - Factors that contributed to the accident.
  • Accident type - Event that directly contributed to the fatal injury.
  • Source of injury - Identifies the object, substance, exposure, or bodily motion that directly produced or inflicted the fatal injury.
  • Nature of injury - Principal physical characteristics of injury.
• Mine (User can select Mining subunit and either Commodity or Commodity group)
  • MSHA subunit - Distinct working area of a mine where fatal accident occurred. Indicates type of mining operation conducted on site.
  • Commodity (MSHA SIC) - MSHA’s Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) for primary commodity mined where fatal accident occurred
  • Commodity group (MSHA canvass) - MSHA’s general product classification, based on the SIC.
• Employer
  • Operator/Contractor - Identifies if employer of victim is a mine operator or contractor.
  • ID, Mine - Identification number assigned by MSHA to a specific mining operation.
  • ID, Contractor - MSHA contractor code assigned to independent contractors.

Characteristics are displayed as sets of checkboxes. Initially, all boxes are unchecked, so it is only necessary to make changes in this step if you wish to include specific characteristics for fatalities. For example, to include only fatalities where the victim was male, check the box labeled Male under the Sex heading.

If your browser supports JavaScript, the All and None buttons can be used to check/uncheck all characteristics in a set. This can be helpful for selecting a large number of characteristics in a set: Click the All button (which checks all characteristics), then uncheck only the characteristics you wish to exclude. Additionally, a user may select NONE of the boxes in a variable category. This has the same effect as choosing all of the variables. To view all data from all years, make no selections in step 1 and proceed to step 2.

Step 2: Choose cost calculation options

On the Choose your calculation options page, two options determine how costs are calculated:

• Dollar year - The costs of all fatalities (regardless of the year in which they occurred) are reported in a common year's dollars. Select this dollar year from the drop down list of years.
• Real discount rate - Future costs are adjusted for the time value of money using the real discount rate. Select a value between 0% and 10%, however the CDC recommends using 3%-5%.

Step 3: Choose and run a report type

When satisfied with the search you have defined, use this page to generate a report.

• Cost report
  • To generate a cost report, which displays the number of fatal injuries and societal cost based on variables you select, click the radio button next to cost report.
    • This opens the Generate a cost report section in which two options determine how the report is structured:
      • Reports are generated in a tabular format so variables may be placed on column and/or row headers. Select the desired column and row headers from each drop down list. If your browser supports JavaScript, a sample report is displayed based on the headers you select. You may also select a column header only, or a row header only, if only one variable is of interest, or no headers, generating a single-cell report that shows only aggregate quantities for the reported fatalities.
      • Select values to view in your report
        • Four values may be reported in each cell: number of fatalities, mean cost, median cost, and total cost. Check the box for each value you wish to include in the report.
• Narrative report
  • To generate a narrative report, which displays a brief summary of the incident along with the estimated social cost of each fatality that meets the selected fatality characteristics, click the radio button next to narrative report.

If desired for either reports, the report can be downloaded in Excel or Word format after it has been generated by clicking the Export to Excel or Export to Word button. This allows a local copy of the report to be saved for future reference or further manipulation. Exporting in Excel produces one workbook with six tabs or sheets for easier analysis. The first sheet provides the search criteria; the second sheet displays the count, mean, median, and total costs in each cell; the third sheet displays counts only; the fourth sheet displays mean costs; the fifth sheet displays median costs, and the sixth sheet displays total costs.