Identification of environmental lead sources and pathways in a mining and smelting town: Mount Isa, Australia

Comments on manuscript—Zheng, J., Huynh, T., Gasparon, M., Ng, J. and Noller, B., 2013. Human health risk assessment of lead from mining activities at semi-arid locations in the context of total lead exposure. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 20, 8404–8416

“…The National Pollutant Inventory (NPI 2014) identified the Mount Isa Mines complex as Australia's largest emitter of As, Cd, Cu, Pb, SO 2 and Zn compounds into surrounding air, land and water systems from the period from July 1999 (the start of data collection for the NPI) to present (see also Taylor et al 2014a, b). These emissions have both a historic component and a contemporary component, presenting a major source of ongoing environmental contamination as well as a serious potential human health risk for Mount Isa (Taylor and Schniering 2010;Taylor et al , 2014aMackay et al 2013). Zheng et al (2013) make the following statement in their article (p. 8413):…”

Preserving the Legacy of Historic Metal-Mining Industries in Light of the Water Framework Directive and Future Environmental Change in Mainland Britain: Challenges for the Heritage Community

“…However, in contrast to other countries where contemporary mining is causing significant environmental problems, 33 the majority of contamination in Britain is associated with historic mining remains and whilst as point sources they are no longer directly contributing contaminants into the environment, waste tips and mine drainage continue to provide a source of pollutants. In the UK, this historical context creates a key management dilemma since it is only since 1999 that mine operators have been under a legal obligation to mitigate pollution from abandoned mines.…”

Study of a comprehensive assessment method of the environmental quality of soil in industrial and mining gathering areas

“…Previous studies suggest that heavy metal pollution has spread to some extent beyond the mines (Rodríguez et al 2009;Guan et al 2014) and has been found to be the major pollutant with serious risk to human health (Lim et al 2008;Fontúrbel et al 2011;Zhao et al 2012). In addition, mobility (Okkenhaug et al 2011;Mackay et al 2013), spatial distribution and ecological risk assessment (Bai et al 2011;Cao et al 2009;Guan et al 2014) are important research content about heavy metal pollution. Although multiple heavy metal contaminants have been extensively examined in terms of spatial distribution and integrated contamination, when selecting mines and their surrounding regions as study areas, the types, distribution and characteristics of pollution sources, socioeconomic factors, population size, land use and other variables related to human factors in such areas have drawn less attention (Liu et al 2009;Zhang et al 2010).…”