Risk of Mercury Exposure from Fish Consumption at Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining Areas in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Current Mercury Exposure from Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Bombana, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia—Future Significant Health Risks

The rapid expansion of the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) industry in developing countries has marginalized the local communities in poverty, and resulted in occupational exposure to mercury via the gold extraction process. We investigated the mercury exposure of the mining workers lived inside and outside the mining area. Based on the occupations of the contributors, the hair sam...

Quicksilver & Gold: Mercury Pollution from Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining

Human Biomonitoring Data from Mercury Exposed Miners in Six Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining Areas in Asia and Africa

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 mercu...

Emissions and environmental implications of mercury from artisanal gold mining in North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

In artisanal gold mining practiced in North Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, gold is separated from ore by the use of mercury, which forms an amalgam with gold. All related processes are undertaken with a low level of technical knowledge and skills, no regulation, and with disregard for the safety of human and environment health. The situation is generating serious potential health and environmental...

Global Burden of Disease of Mercury Used in Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining.

BACKGROUND Artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the world's largest anthropogenic source of mercury emission. Gold miners are highly exposed to metallic mercury and suffer occupational mercury intoxication. The global disease burden as a result of this exposure is largely unknown because the informal character of ASGM restricts the availability of reliable data. OBJECTIVE To estimate t...