The Impacts of Workplace Environment on Coal Miners’ Emotion and Cognition Depicted in a Mouse Model

Abstract

Most coal mine accidents are caused by the unsafe behavior of employees. Previous studies have shown that there is a significant connection among the working environment, the psychological state of employees, and unsafe behaviors. However, the internal biological mechanism has not been revealed. To explore the physiological and psychological alterations of coal mine workers and the underlying mechanisms that cause unsafe behaviors, the current study established a novel coal mine environment biological simulation (CEBS) model in mice. This model recreated the underground workplace environment facts in coal mines such as temperature, humidity, and noise, and mice were employed to receive these conditioning stresses according to the 8-h work. Animal behavior tests were performed to evaluate the evolution of the mental state including anxiety and depression, as well as the abilities of learning and memory during the 4-week environmental simulation. CEBS mice showed the adaptation process of anxiety from occurrence to stability in the process of environmental simulation, and also suffered from severe depression compared to the control mice. In addition, impaired spatial memory was also implicated in mice after 4-week CEBS. The behavior results of CEBS mice were consistent with the previous psychological investigation of coal workers. In summary, a novel mouse model was established in this study to depict the occurrence of negative emotions and impaired cognition in coal miners by simulating the underground workplace environment, which provided a basis for further exploring the biological mechanism of miners’ unsafe behavior.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Deep Coal Miners’ Unsafe Behavior Based on HFACS-CM-SEM-SD

“…Various prevention and control strategies for miners’ unsafe states can quickly reduce the level of miners’ unsafe behavior and reduce the risk of unsafe behavior. This research result is consistent with the research conclusions of previous scholars [ 23 , 69 ]. A long-term working environment of the deep coal mine and complex production process will cause negative changes in miners’ safe state.…”

“…In addition, relevant studies have confirmed that the hot and humid underground climate in deep mines not only seriously affects the physical and mental health of miners but also reduces the production efficiency of miners and increases the safety risk of deep mining [ 22 ]. Li et al also showed through a mouse biological simulation model experiment (CEBS) that environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and noise in coal mine workplaces could lead to adverse reactions, such as anxiety, depression, and impaired memory ability in mice [ 23 ]. From the above analysis, the harsh working environment, such as high temperature, high humidity, noise, and dust in the underground coal mine, combined with high-intensity physical labor, will cause coal miners to suffer from various occupational diseases and destructive emotions.…”

Application of AHP and DEMATEL for Identifying Factors Influencing Coal Mine Practitioners’ Unsafe State

“…The emotions involved in this study primarily refer to negative emotions. Li et al verified, by simulating the underground environment of a coal mine, that anxiety and depression will put the miners in an unsafe state, thus prompting the miners to engage in unsafe behaviors [55]. Coal mine practitioners driven by negative emotions are in an unsafe state.…”