No abstract

Artisans in Masisi and other parts of the North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) mine columbite-tantalite mineral ores (also called 'coltan') for the tantalum content. The potential occupational radiation exposures in the course of this operation, due to the presence of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), have been investigated in this screening survey. Activity concentrations of the naturally occurring radionuclides in samples of coltan were measured using gamma-ray spectrometry. The average values in Bq g(-1) are 10.75 +/- 5.11 for (238)U, 7.06 +/- 3.39 for (226)Ra, 1.75 +/- 0.85 for (232)Th, and 1.63 +/- 0.52 for (40)K. Based on these values and the working scenarios involved in artisanal coltan mining, the occupational doses that may accrue from a variety of exposure pathways were determined by model calculations. The results, assuming conservative dust load and dilution factors, indicate that grinding and sieving coltan can give rise to high occupational doses, up to 18 mSv per annum on average.

No abstract

The results of heavy element profiling of the gold ores and sediments associated with the artisanal gold mining activities of the Migori gold belt of Southwestern Nyanza, Kenya, were reported in this paper. The analysis was made to assess the occupational exposure of the miners as well as to investigate the environmental impact of toxic heavy metals. Gold ores and sediments from the artisanal gold processing were sampled in four artisanal gold mining areas: Osiri A, Osiri B, Mikei and Macalder (Makalda) and analyzed for heavy elemental content using (109)Cd radioisotope excited EDXRF spectrometry technique. Analysis consisted of direct irradiating of sample pellets. The concentrations of major elements detected were: titanium (711.41-10,766.67 mg/kg); cobalt (82.65-1,010.00 mg/kg); zinc (29.90-63,210 mg/kg); arsenic (29.30-8,246.59 mg/kg); gold (14.07-73.48 mg/kg); lead (16.31-14,999.40 mg/kg) and mercury (16.10-149.93 mg/kg). The average concentration of the heavy toxic metals i.e. arsenic, lead, titanium and zinc were found to be above 50 mg/Kg as recommended by World Health Organization.

The effects of outdoor temperature, rainfall and wind speed on the indoor radon concentration in four types of traditional hut in Kenya were investigated by performing short-term (about 48 h) measurements with activated charcoal canisters. The concentrations vary widely (30.2-315.4 Bq m(-3)) during the study period, and the overall mean is 170.3 +/- 39.6 Bq m(-3). The indoor radon concentration correlates negatively with both the outdoor temperature (R(2) = 0.06) and the wind speed (R(2) = 0.11) but positively with rainfall (R(2) = 0.03). The results showed that changes in meteorological parameters cause more variations in indoor radon concentrations than the differences in the buildings' characteristics (i.e., designs, materials, etc). However, these variations are not significant (at 1% significance level).