ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Characteristics and Occupational Exposure Assessment of VOCs in different coal mines
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Earth and Environment, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, Anhui, China
- 2Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, China
- 3Joint National-Local Engineering Research Centre for Safe and Precise Coal Mining, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, Anhui, China
- 4Huainan Academy of Atmospheric Sciences, Huainan, China
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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) accumulating in underground coal mines present significant occupational health hazards. This study investigates the pollution characteristics and health risks of VOCs in three typical mining areas. The main findings are as follows:①VOCs concentrations underground substantially exceeded surface background levels, with peak concentrations of 10.8 mg/m³ in Pansan Mine, 9.31 mg/m ³ in Qinghai Yuqa Mine, and 14.29 mg/m ³ in Hongliulin Mine, all observed at the working face. A consistent spatial distribution pattern of coal working face > air return tunnel > air intake tunnel identified the working face as the primary pollution source. ②VOCs composition differentiation was closely related to mining methods. In Pansan Mine (cage elevator) and Qinghai Yuqa Mine (monkey car), alkane proportions increased by 18.7% – 23.4% with depth, while OVOCs decreased by 12.1%–15.6%, reflecting dominant natural emissions from coal seams. Conversely, Hongliulin Mine (diesel vehicle transport) showed minimal variation in alkane and OVOC proportions (fluctuations ≤4.8%), underscoring the significant influence of mining activities. ③For the limited set of VOCs with established OELVs (17 of 116), exposure indices were significantly below 1. Furthermore, analysis showed that exposures to the remaining compounds were also negligible, indicating no significant occupational health risk.
Keywords: volatile organic compounds (VOCs), Descent method, VOCs concentration, VOCs characteristics, occupational exposure assessment
Received: 19 Sep 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Xue, Liu, Zhang and Xie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaozhou Liu
Sheng Xue
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