Mining seems awfully ...Safe to me..
To ensure safety for mining players, they should create beams as a guarantee that cave-ins wont happen there. While the cave-in aspect is likely not going to sit well with the whiners, let's move onto something good.
Birdhouses, Canaries, and natural gas pockets - Birdhouses will lure birds in with seeds and shelter, A canary can help a miner stay safe in a mine, Canaries die long before gas can kill a player or cause an explosion which could seriously injure them.