Mortality in the New South Wales coal industry, 1973-1992

To study the mortality of coalminers in New South Wales (NSW) between 1973 and 1992.

An inception cohort of all male coal industry employees who entered the industry between 1 January 1973 and 31 December 1992 was constructed from the records of Joint Coal Board medical examinations. This cohort was matched with the NSW Death Register to determine the number and causes of deaths in cohort members.

The cohort consisted of 23,630 men; 491 died during the study period. The standardised mortality ratio (SMR) for all causes of death was 0.76; that is, after age correction, coalminers have a 24% lower mortality than the general NSW population. Deaths from cancer were lower than expected, and there was a 27% lower mortality from respiratory disease. However, a substantial excess of non-motor-vehicle accidents (SMR, 1.60) was found. Most of these deaths can be attributed to occupation, and some to specific incidents. These excess death rates are confined to underground miners; open cut miners have a substantially lower rate than the general population.

A "healthy worker" effect may explain the lower overall mortality. Although "black lung" is no longer a problem, accidents are still common in underground coalmining. The major expansion of open cut mining in recent years has improved the situation.