Abstract
Objectives: In artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) areas in many developing countries, mercury (Hg) is used to extract gold from ore. Data of 1250 participants from Indonesia, Mongolia, Philippines, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe were combined to analyze the relation between exposure in ASGM areas and body burden. Methods: Four groups were selected relating to their intensity of contact with mercury: (i) a non-exposed control group; (ii) a low exposed group with participants only living in mining areas, but not working as miners; (iii) a medium exposed group, miners living in exposed areas and working with mercury without smelting amalgam; and (iv) a high exposed group, miners living in exposed areas and smelting amalgam. Results: Compared to the non-exposed control group, participants living and/ or miners working in highly exposed areas have significantly higher concentration of total mercury in urine, hair and blood (p-value < 0.001). The median mercury value in urine in the control group is < 0.2 µg/L. In the high exposed group of amalgam smelters, the median in urine is 12.0 µg/L. The median in blood in the control group is < 0.93 µg/L. The median level in blood of the high exposed group is 7.56 µg/L. The median for mercury in hair samples from the control group is 0.21 µg/g. In the high exposed group the median hair concentration is 2.4 µg/g hair. Mercury levels also differ considerably between the countries, reflecting a diverse background burden due to different fish eating habits and different work place methods. Conclusions: A high percentage of exposed individuals had levels above threshold values. These high levels of mercury are likely to be related with serious health problems.
Highlights
In many developing countries, artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is an important economic factor
The amount of mercury in hair lies within the interval of
The amount of mercury in blood in the low exposed group lies within the range of
Summary
According to Hentschel et al, the willingness of artisanal small-scale gold miners to operate legally depends on four interacting factors, named: “legal and administrative factors”, “moral factors”, “economic factors” and “factors related to enterprise” [1]. The workers add liquid mercury and pan the mixture to ensure that gold is bound to mercury forming an amalgam. To dissolve the gold from the amalgam the miners smelt the mixture and the result is refined gold and mercury vapor. All miners still work without any kind of protection, neither gloves nor dusk masks or technical systems to avoid the release of mercury vapor
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