Human Biomonitoring Data from Mercury Exposed Miners in Six Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining Areas in Asia and Africa
Human Biomonitoring Data from Mercury Exposed Miners in Six Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining Areas in Asia and Africa
复制标题
DOI：
10.3390/min1010122
复制
发表时间：
2011-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Siebert, Uwe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Baeuml, Jennifer;Bose-O'Reilly, Stephan;Siebert, Uwe
目标：在许多发展中国家的手工小规模采金 (ASGM) 地区，汞 (Hg) 用于从矿石中提取黄金。综合来自印度尼西亚、蒙古、菲律宾、坦桑尼亚和津巴布韦的 1250 名参与者的数据，分析手工和小规模采金地区的暴露与身体负担之间的关系。方法：根据与汞的接触强度选择四组：(i) 未暴露对照组； (ii) 低暴露群体，参与者仅居住在矿区，但不从事矿工工作； (iii) 中度接触群体，即生活在接触区域并从事汞工作而不冶炼汞合金的矿工； (iv) 高暴露群体，即居住在暴露地区并冶炼汞合金的矿工。结果：与非暴露对照组相比，生活在高暴露地区的参与者和/或工作的矿工的尿液、头发和血液中的总汞浓度显着较高（p 值 < 0.001）。对照组尿液中汞含量中值<0.2μg/L。在汞合金冶炼厂高暴露组中，尿液中的中位数为12.0μg/L。对照组血液中的中位数<0.93μg/L。高暴露组血液中的中位水平为7.56μg/L。对照组头发样本中汞的中位数为 0.21 μg/g。在高暴露组中，中位头发浓度为 2.4 μg/g 头发。各国之间的汞含量也存在很大差异，反映出由于不同的鱼类饮食习惯和不同的工作场所方法而造成的不同背景负担。结论：很大比例的暴露个体的水平高于阈值。这些高含量的汞可能与严重的健康问题有关。
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 mu g/L. In the high exposed group of amalgam smelters, the median in urine is 12.0 mu g/L. The median in blood in the control group is < 0.93 mu g/L. The median level in blood of the high exposed group is 7.56 mu g/L. The median for mercury in hair samples from the control group is 0.21 mu g/g. In the high exposed group the median hair concentration is 2.4 mu g/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.