Community perceptions and mental burden among (former) residents at Europe’s largest lignite mine in Western Germany: a cross-sectional study

During the many years that coal has been used for energy production, most studies have focused on the global environmental impacts such as climate change or, when addressing health, rather on conditions of open pit coal miners. This study aims to assess the mental health impacts of lignite (brown coal) mining on communities living in proximity to an open pit mine, including resettlers. A questionnaire-based survey was used with items including socioeconomic effects of open pit mining and resettlement, environmental burden, attitudes, as well as scales for depressive and somatic symptoms. Data included n = 100 respondents from resettled villages and n = 235 participants from pit edge villages nearby Europe's largest open pit mine Hambach in Western Germany. Both groups reported up to twice as high levels of depressive and somatic symptoms compared to the general population. Over 16.0% of all surveyed stated moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms, while 40.0% of respondents from pit edge villages self-reported moderate-to-severe somatic symptom levels (vs. 23.7% in resettled villages). Three out of four respondents from pit edge villages felt often to nearly always affected by dust followed by noise (41.9%). These results suggest that a changing home environment and residential proximity to an open pit mine could affect the mental health, leading to psychological strain. Further studies on the psychosocial impact of environmental change and loss of home are needed.