Geospatial analysis of residential proximity to open-pit coal mining areas in relation to micronuclei frequency, particulate matter concentration, and elemental enrichment factors

Abstract

During coal surface mining, several activities such as drilling, blasting, loading, and transport produce large quantities of particulate matter (PM) that is directly emitted into the atmosphere. Occupational exposure to this PM has been associated with an increase of DNA damage, but there is a scarcity of data examining the impact of these industrial operations in cytogenetic endpoints frequency and cancer risk of potentially exposed surrounding populations. In this study, we used a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach and Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) methods to perform a spatial and statistical analysis to explore whether exposure to PM and PM pollution, and additional factors, including the enrichment of the PM with inorganic elements, contribute to cytogenetic damage in residents living in proximity to an open-pit coal mining area. Results showed a spatial relationship between exposure to elevated concentrations of PM PM and micronuclei frequency in binucleated (MNBN) and mononucleated (MNMONO) cells. Active pits, disposal, and storage areas could be identified as the possible emission sources of combustion elements. Mining activities were also correlated with increased concentrations of highly enriched elements like S, Cu and Cr in the atmosphere, corroborating its role in the inorganic elements pollution around coal mines. Elements enriched in the PM fraction contributed to increasing of MNBN but seems to be more related to increased MNMONO frequencies and DNA damage accumulated in vivo. The combined use of GIS and IDW methods could represent an important tool for monitoring potential cancer risk associated to dynamically distributed variables like the PM.

Impact of the Coal Mining on the Spatial Distribution of Potentially Toxic Metals in Farmland Tillage Soil

“…There have been a number of statements about Cr from coal mining 37 , 38 . Many studies have identified the enrichment of Cr in coal dust or fly ash in the coal mining area 39 , 40 . For example, it has been well documented that the Cr concentrations in leachates of fly ash in Sarigkiol basin 41 accounted for more than 96% of the total Cr.…”

Elemental Composition, Morphology and Sources of Fine Particulates (PM2.5) in Hefei City, China

“…We calculated with the reference element Fe, applying the composition of continental crust, as Mason (1966) and Arditsoglou and Samara (2005) proposed. Elements are classified as non, medially and severely enriched as per corresponding values of EF < 10, 10 < EF < 100 and EF > 100 (Taner et al, 2013;Espitia-Pérez et al, 2018).…”

Untitled

“…Soil pollution with coal-derived compounds has been reported across the globe (Espitia-Pérez et al, 2018;Luo et al, 2019;Maqbool et al, 2019). Soil is the most commonly encountered geomaterial.…”