![]() ![]() In addition to the mercury body burden measurable in human specimens, chronic exposure to mercury vapors causes erethism, tremor, gingivitis, and other symptoms. Methylated mercury thus affects humans through food (e.g., contaminated fish) and water. Mercury is dumped in the environment during mining, increasing the concentration in the atmosphere and international water bodies, where it is converted to methylmercury. ![]() The main route of mercury exposure in ASGM is inhalation of vaporized elemental mercury released during amalgam smelting, although exposure to other forms of mercury and absorption paths cannot be excluded. Amalgamation is not the only method, but it is very common because it is simple and mercury is cheap and widely available. It is mostly the poor segment of the population and even children who use this procedure to earn money for themselves and their families. In the extraction process, elemental mercury forms an amalgam with the gold in the ore. While Colombia was recently identified as the worldwide largest mercury polluter per capita due to gold mining, Zimbabwe is one of the world’s top ten users of mercury in ASGM, with 25 tons per year. ĪSGM is a widespread activity practiced in over 70 countries. Due to the informal character of ASGM, the magnitude of its impact on human health and the extent of the problem have rarely been studied. This is currently the main global source of anthropogenic mercury emissions and affects both the environment and human health. However, the results highlight the need to reduce a burden which could be entirely avoided.Īlthough mercury (Hg) is highly toxic, it is used in artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) to extract gold from ore. Improving data quality would allow more accurate estimates. If the determined assumptions hold, chronic mercury intoxication is likely to have been one of the top 20 hazards for population health in Zimbabwe in 2004 when comparing with more than 130 categories of diseases and injuries quantified in the WHO’s GBD 2004 update. This analysis provides a preliminary quantification of the mercury-related health burden from ASGM based on the limited data available. If these assumptions hold, the extrapolation would result in around 95,400 DALYs in Zimbabwe’s total population in 2004. Data availability is very limited why it was necessary to model data and make assumptions about the number of exposed population, the definition of chronic mercury intoxication, DW, and epidemiology. Miners showed a sample prevalence of 72% while controls showed no cases of chronic mercury intoxication. While there was no disability weight (DW) available indicating the relative disease severity of chronic mercury intoxication, the DW of a comparable disease was assigned by following the criteria 1) chronic condition, 2) triggered by a substance, and 3) causing similar health symptoms. Further epidemiological and demographic data were taken from the literature and missing data modeled with DisMod II to quantify DALYs using the methods from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2004 update published by the World Health Organization (WHO). ![]() ![]() The sample prevalence amongst miners and controls (surveyed by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in 2004 and the University of Munich in 2006) was determined and extrapolated to the entire population of Zimbabwe. MethodsĬases of chronic mercury intoxication were identified following an algorithm using mercury-related health effects and mercury in human specimens. This analysis was performed to check data availability and derive a preliminary estimate of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to mercury use in ASGM in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is amongst the top ten countries using large quantities of mercury to extract gold from ore. Artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a poverty-driven activity practiced in over 70 countries worldwide. ![]()
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