Some of the poorest people in the world's poorest countries eke out a living in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Equipped with primitive tools like picks, shovels, buckets, and gold pans, they work mining valuable resources, like gold, diamonds, tin, lithium, rare earth elements, tantalum, and cobalt, and any other usable commodity, for example, sand, coal, or mica. The mining and refining processes are labor intensive and associated with a variety of health problems due to accidents, overheating, overexertion, dust inhalation, exposure to toxic chemicals and gases, violence, and illicit and prescription drug and alcohol addiction. Evident disadvantages with ASM are counterbalanced by the immense economic benefits. For many, the true scope and scale of ASM activities are unappreciated, along with the unknown health and societal impacts. Here, we set out to elucidate the scope of ASM beyond the recovery of familiar commodities, such as gold and diamonds. We adopt a holistic perspective toward health impacts of ASM, which includes unique occupational, environmental, and human/social drivers. A particular focus is poverty as a health risk with artisanal miners. They are commonly poverty-stricken people in poor countries, ensnared by a variety of poverty traps, which take a toll on the health and well-being of individuals and communities. ASM sometimes provides an opportunity to diversify income in the face of a decline in subsistence agriculture. However, ASM often trades one kind of generational poverty for another, coming along with serious health risks and turmoil associated with work in an informal "cash-rich" business. Plain Language Summary Many of the world's most valuable commodities, for example, gold, diamonds, and strategic metals, and less valuable resources, for example, sand, clay, and coal, are the products of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). The miners are commonly poor people with rudimentary tools, like shovels, buckets, and pans subsisting by working shallow ore deposits. Although an inefficient mining method, the large numbers of people can contribute substantially to a country's total production. Much of this mining occurs in distant, lawless areas like the Amazon River basin or the outback in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The work is grueling and dangerous because of violence and unregulated work sites. Miners suffer from the expected collection of occupational health risks, due to, for example, accidents, chemical exposures, dust inhalation, and lifting and lugging of heavy loads. Mining communities are at risk from incidental exposures to mercury, mosquito-borne diseases, poor sanitation, and more. Human and social problems also impact health. Our paper emphasizes poverty as a risk factor for disease, as miners are caught in poverty traps-unable to leave. Injuries and disease often must remain untreated because of costs and absent clinics.

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Around the world, several tens of millions of people work in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Traditional ASM involves using primitive tools such as picks, shovels, gold pans, etc. to mine accessible metals, precious stones, colored stones, and industrial commodities such as sand, coal and more (Schwartz et al., 2020). Worldwide, such mining has gone on for centuries or even millennia. Compared to modern industrial mining, ASM is inefficient and labor intensive. A single miner can only process a small quantity of material, limiting the capacity for resource recovery. However, because thousands or tens of thousands of people work a single deposit, the production of gold, diamonds or cobalt can comprise a significant fraction of a country's total production.

Phase transfer catalysts (PTCs) can enhance the oxidation of pure DNAPLs using potassium permanganate by facilitating reactions in the organic phase. This study examined the influence of pentyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (PTPP) as a PTC on the rate of permanganate (MnO4‐) oxidation of DNAPLs in pure phases and mixtures. Kinetic batch experiments with trichloroethylene (TCE), 1,1,2‐trichloroethane (TCA), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), 1,1,2,2‐tetrachloroethane (TECA), and their mixtures, (1:1, v/v) were performed in test tubes to assess reaction rates. The disappearance of MnO4‐ was quantified by capturing digital images pf the tubes. This rapid photographic monitoring approach was validated by comparison with an UV‐Vis spectrometer method. The PCE/TCA mixture was selected to examine the impact of relative contents of a component in the binary mixture on the MnO4‐ disappearance. The comparative rates of MnO4‐ consumption for pure phases were TCE > TECA > PCE > TCA. PTPP increased MnO4‐ consumption rates, especially for TCE and TECA as pure, phases. The consumption rates of mixtures without PTPP were lower than those including the pure phases. However, due to their high extraction capability for PTPP‐MnO4‐ ion pairs, TCA and TECA appeared to increase the MnO4‐ consumption significantly when they were mixed with TCE or PCE, The increase in consumption rates with PTPP was most remarkable with the mixture of PCE and TCA. Chloride concentration showed faster increases for the mixtures with relative PCE contents ranging about 5 % to 90%, maximum at about 50% PCE, than for pure phases of PCE and TCA when the PTC assisted the reactions. The PTC appears to be promising in its ability to increase oxidation rates of DNAPL mixtures.

This study derives the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) factors and competitiveness index necessary for Korean venture companies to succeed in the fourth industrial revolution. It suggests a SWOT strategy as well as an action plan in which the government and related parties prepare to secure global competitiveness, along with a very basic and systematic analysis. A total of 21 SWOT sub-factors were selected through a literature review and report analysis and were evaluated by various industry, academics, and policy experts via a Delphi survey. The results of pairwise comparative analysis using the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) technique showed that the importance of the 4 SWOT quadrants could be arranged in order as strength (48%) → opportunity (25%) → threat (16%) → weakness (11%). Looking at the competitiveness index according to industry, ‘Artificial intelligence·Intelligent Robots·Autonomous driving (a)’, ‘Blockchain·Fintech (d)’, ‘Bio-health (f)’, and ‘Big data·Cloud (c)’ possessed high competitiveness. The ‘Internet of Things·5G (b)’, ‘3D printing·Virtual reality (g)’, and ‘New materials·Energy (e)’ industries were the least competent industries. Optimal strategies derived through an analysis of the competitiveness index are as follows: the S-O (Strength-Opportunity) strategy was optimal for industries such as ‘Internet of things·5G (b)’, ‘Big data·Cloud (c)’, ‘Bio-health (f)’, the S-T (Strength-Threat) strategy was optimal for ‘Artificial intelligence·Intelligent Robots·Autonomous driving (a)’, ‘Blockchain·Fintech (d)’ and ‘New materials·Energy (e)’. Finally, the W-T (Weakness -Threat) strategy should be prioritized for the ‘3D printing·Virtual Reality (g)’ industry. The implication of the study outlined above is that policies supporting the strengths and weaknesses of a company must be established beforehand for Korean venture companies to secure competitiveness in the fourth industrial revolution. First, it is of the utmost importance to develop a business faster by utilizing the excellent ICT infrastructure of Korea. Second, the Korean government should take a leading role in mediating the sharing of the resources (manpower, technology, equipment, etc.) that are available from each university, company, and research institute. Third, the government should prepare a technology development roadmap for commercialization as well as source technology for the fourth industrial revolution.