Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/883641
SPECIAL REPORT 8 AGGREGATES MANAGER / October 2017 D o you have any idea how much a lacerated fi nger or back sprain can cost your company? Safety Pays in Mining — a new, free web app from the National Insti- tute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) — can help you fi nd out. Safety Pays in Mining not only gives you the cost of injury claims, but also reports the most common injuries and work ac- tivities by commodity, shows how selected injuries can impact profi ts, and offers suggestions on how that same money might be spent if injury was prevented. The web app is available on the NIOSH Mining webpage at https://go.usa.gov/xNk8U. Injuries on the job cause pain and suffering. They can also profoundly affect profi ts and daily operations. In addition to pay- ing direct costs or increased premiums for workers' comp insur- ance, you might need to pay for overtime for other workers to fi ll an injured worker's role, cover training costs for a replacement, or divert administrative resources in the wake of an injury. This web app estimates the unknown distribution of these injury costs. The costs of specifi c types of occupational injuries in mining are not readily available because mining and insurance companies don't usually share this information. As a conse- quence, companies only have cost information based on previ- ous experience with their own employees. Therefore, if a mine never experienced a fi nger amputation for one of its miners, it What's the Cost of an Injury? A new app from NIOSH, Safety Pays in Mining, estimates costs of common mining injuries. by John R. Heberger