Contamination, exposure and risk assessment of mercury in the soils of an artisanal gold mining community in Ghana

Gyamfi, Opoku; Sørensen, Peter B.; Darko, Godfred; Ansah, Eugene; Vorkamp, Katrin; Bak, Jesper

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128910

Cited by 48 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The minimum value obtained was 0.094 μg L −1 in sampling station D5, while the maximum was 1,000 μg L −1 in sampling station T4 much higher than reported by Silva et al. (2020) and Gyamfi et al. (2021) .…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 60%

Water quality of streams associated with artisanal gold mining; Suárez, Department of Cauca, Colombia

Corredor

Pérez

Figueroa

et al. 2021

Heliyon

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Gold mining is one of the major problems of contamination of hydric resources in Colombia, this practice generates a high impact on water quality due to the accumulation of waste during its process. In this study water quality was evaluated in five natural stream beds corresponding to four streams with gold mining operations and one in the Cauca River, taking samples before the water inlet and after the outlet in each operation in the streams of Dios Te Dé, Tamboral, Piedra Imán, and Lorenzo affected by artisanal gold mining labor, which drain into the Salvajina Reservoir on the Cauca River in the municipality of Suárez Cauca, Colombia. Characterization of water bodies in the streams was carried out applying contamination indices of Colombia. The IDEAM protocol was used as guide to monitor the water currents. Samples were taken in 15 stations in the natural stream beds with operations and a sampling station on the Cauca River after the reservoir in these lotic ecosystems, during three periods; two from 2018 and one from 2019. The range of the contamination indices according to the environmental variables were considered. Results show that the contaminants associated with TSS, TUR, and Hg are high in the sampling stations in the output of the operations and the sampling stations of the streams with influence on the operations (T3, T4, I2, I3, D2, and D5). The water quality score according to the ICA IDEAM index varied between acceptable and regular in the different sampling stations. However the Hg concentration in sampling station C1 of the Cauca River is due to contributions from the operations in the amalgamation process. This requires strategic interventions by the communities, miners, operation owners, and control organisms as the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cauca (CRC) and the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS) to minimize the negative impacts on the hydric resource and ecosystemic services associated with this resource.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 60%

Water quality of streams associated with artisanal gold mining; Suárez, Department of Cauca, Colombia

Corredor

Pérez

Figueroa

et al. 2021

Heliyon

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“…Mining operations inevitably cause socio-economic consequences and produce several detrimental disturbances that commonly affect the surrounding environment. However, mining impacts can also have a global reach, as in the case of Hg, causing widespread health concerns for the general population and not only for high-end exposure individuals living in the vicinity of the mine sites (Gyamfi et al, 2021;Snow et al, 2021). Commonly, such impacts are not limited to the mine production phase but may also persist after mine closure and even rehearse over a longer time, if remediation measures are not adequate or absent at all (Monaci et al, 2021;Venkateswarlu et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves

Monaci

Ancora

Paoli

et al. 2022

Environ Geochem Health

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In this study, leaves of the evergreen holm oak Quercus ilex were used to assess airborne contamination of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) at five towns located on the slopes of the Mt. Amiata (central Italy), an area with a long history of mining and, more recently, an important district for the industrial exploitation of geothermal energy. PTE composition and covariance of washed and unwashed Q. ilex leaves of three different ages (6, 12 and 24 month-old) were used to identify atmospheric inputs of PTEs at residential areas, evaluate long-term adsorption and retention of PTEs by the leaves, thus providing an indication of potential human exposure. Moreover, the determination of foliar concentrations of major elements (C, N, S and P) allowed an assessment of the nutritional status of the investigated urban tree stands which excluded the existence of stress condition caused by air pollution or other disturbances. Results indicated that overall Pb, Cu, and Cd concentration were low in the investigated urban sites, if compared with similar studies conducted in larger Italian cities, denoting a low contribution of vehicular traffic to the atmospheric pathway. The five urban settlements were characterized by a specific profile of elements (Al, Ba, Hg and Sb) enriched in unwashed leaves, resulting from the distinct geochemical characteristics of the area and from diffuse (i.e., urban activity) and point sources of PTEs emission (i.e., brownfields, geothermal power plants). The latter sources primarily govern the distribution of Hg, whose contamination was found to be very localized close to a major abandoned mining area. Our data provided quantitative evidence of the spectrum of PTEs potentially impacting resident population and may prove useful in support of follow-up instrumental monitoring campaigns of air quality, as well as for human health and ecological risk assessments. Graphical abstract

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“…In addition, nine articles performed risk assessments for cancer and non-cancer hazard indices as consequences of mining activities among children. Gymafi et al 58 calculated the non-cancer hazard index as a consequence of mercury exposure among children at mining sites to be 76 (notably higher than the hazard index of 10 noted among adults). Other studies from the Amazon, Bolivia, Ecuador, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania reported increased risk of cancer among children from mining communities based on concentrations of trace metals detected; arsenic, in particular, has been associated with an increased risk of cancer in children, although estimates range substantially between 1 in 1,000 and 4 in 1,000,000.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental and health risks posed to children by artisanal gold mining: A systematic review

2022

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There are an estimated 5 million children working in artisanal and small-scale gold mines worldwide; however, the hazards are poorly characterized and often underreported. We systematically reviewed the literature on reports of hazards among children as a consequence of such activities through PubMed database using pre-defined search terms. We identified 113 articles published between 1984 and 2021 from 31 countries. Toxicological hazards were reported in 91 articles, including mercury, lead, and arsenic. Infectious hazards, noted in 18 articles, included malaria, cholera, and hepatitis. Six articles reported occupational hazards, including malnutrition, heat stroke, and reactive airway disease. Three articles reported traumatic hazards, including cave-ins, burns, animal attacks, falls, and weapon-inflected wounds. Those findings likely indicate a profound underreporting of the prevalence and consequences of such hazards among children. More work is needed both to characterize the burdens of those hazards and to address the underlying drivers of child labor in those settings.

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Contamination, exposure and risk assessment of mercury in the soils of an artisanal gold mining community in Ghana

Cited by 48 publications

References 37 publications

Water quality of streams associated with artisanal gold mining; Suárez, Department of Cauca, Colombia

Water quality of streams associated with artisanal gold mining; Suárez, Department of Cauca, Colombia

Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves

Environmental and health risks posed to children by artisanal gold mining: A systematic review

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