Artisanal gold mining in the eastern Amazon: Environmental and human health risks of mercury from different mining methods

Teixeira, Renato Alves; Pereira, Wendel Valter da Silveira; Souza, Edna Santos de; Ramos, Sílvio Júnio; Dias, Yan Nunes; Lima, Mauricio Willians de; Neto, Hamilton Ferreira de Souza; Oliveira, Éder Silva de; Fernandes, Antônio Rodrigues

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.131220

Cited by 37 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Mercury has been a valuable metal in various industrial processes, particularly in gold mining activities and especially in developing countries surrounding the Amazon basin. This apparent economic benefit is insignificant compared to its severe environmental and neurotoxicological health impact [4][5][6][15][16][17][18][19][20]93]. The present study provides evidence that communities living in the Tapajos River basin in the Munduruku indigenous territories have a mean level of Hg exposure surpassing the safety limit (6.0 µg/g) recognized by the World Health Organization [69].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

“…Over the last 50 years, the ASGM have released thousands of tons of mercury into the Amazonian environment and, simultaneously, contributed to the process of soil and sediment erosion that facilitates the mobilization of natural mercury [2,13,14]. In a recent study conducted by Teixeira et al [15], mineralogical analysis carried out on soil samples from the region of Cachoeira do Piriá (state of Pará) revealed high concentrations of mercury, above the limit established by Brazilian environmental legislation, despite the absence of mineral formations constituted by mercury (i.e., despite the absence of natural mercury). These results make even more evidently the contribution of the ASGM (also called garimpo) to environmental mercury contamination and indicate that the presence of natural mercury in the Amazon's soil is not homogenous.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mercury Exposure in Munduruku Indigenous Communities from Brazilian Amazon: Methodological Background and an Overview of the Principal Results

Basta

Viana

Vasconcellos

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The Amazonian indigenous peoples depend on natural resources to live, but human activities’ growing impacts threaten their health and livelihoods. Our objectives were to present the principal results of an integrated and multidisciplinary analysis of the health parameters and assess the mercury (Hg) exposure levels in indigenous populations in the Brazilian Amazon. We carried out a cross-sectional study based on a census of three Munduruku indigenous villages (Sawré Muybu, Poxo Muybu, and Sawré Aboy), located in the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Land, between 29 October and 9 November 2019. The investigation included: (i) sociodemographic characterization of the participants; (ii) health assessment; (iii) genetic polymorphism analysis; (iv) hair mercury determination; and (v) fish mercury determination. We used the logistic regression model with conditional Prevalence Ratio (PR), with the respective 95% confidence intervals (CI95%) to explore factors associated with mercury exposure levels ≥6.0 µg/g. A total of 200 participants were interviewed. Mercury levels (197 hair samples) ranged from 1.4 to 23.9 μg/g, with significant differences between the villages (Kruskal–Wallis test: 19.9; p-value < 0.001). On average, the general prevalence of Hg exposure ≥ 6.0 µg/g was 57.9%. For participants ≥12 years old, the Hg exposure ≥6.0 µg/g showed associated with no regular income (PR: 1.3; CI95%: 1.0–1.8), high blood pressure (PR: 1.6; CI95%: 1.3–2.1) and was more prominent in Sawré Aboy village (PR: 1.8; CI95%: 1.3–2.3). For women of childbearing age, the Hg exposure ≥6.0 µg/g was associated with high blood pressure (PR: 1.9; CI95%: 1.2–2.3), with pregnancy (PR: 1.5; CI95%: 1.0–2.1) and was more prominent among residents in Poxo Muybu (PR: 1.9; CI95%: 1.0–3.4) and Sawré Aboy (PR: 2.5; CI95%: 1.4–4.4) villages. Our findings suggest that chronic mercury exposure causes harmful effects to the studied indigenous communities, especially considering vulnerable groups of the population, such as women of childbearing age. Lastly, we propose to stop the illegal mining in these areas and develop a risk management plan that aims to ensure the health, livelihoods, and human rights of the indigenous people from Amazon Basin.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mercury Exposure in Munduruku Indigenous Communities from Brazilian Amazon: Methodological Background and an Overview of the Principal Results

Basta

Viana

Vasconcellos

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…It is important to mention that, in contrast to industrial mining that is committed to standard working procedures and for recovering mined areas, Au mining activity can also occur in an artisanal form, using rudimentary and less efficient extraction methods (Pereira et al, 2020;Teixeira et al, 2018Teixeira et al, , 2021. In addition, little or no environmental control measures are often implemented, which can make artisanal mining extremely harmful to the environment and pose a risk to the health of people influenced by these activities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining approaches for environmental assessment of rehabilitated gold‐mining areas in the Eastern Amazon

Ramos,

de Oliveira,

Ribeiro

et al. 2024

Land Degrad Dev

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Monitoring key soil and vegetation attributes in mining areas under environmental rehabilitation is essential to ensure that the intervention techniques are effective. There are several approaches to monitoring mining areas and their integration is necessary to process large amounts of information. Thus, this study aimed to (i) assess soil multi‐contamination with potentially toxic elements (PTE) and human health risks; (ii) obtain a soil quality index with soil fertility data; (iii) calculate spectral index; (iv) show rehabilitation status based on vegetation attributes, and (v) compile these indices in a single measure. Four tailings' ponds (TPs), two waste piles (WPs), and an area of native forest from a gold mine in the Carajás National Forest were evaluated. Soil quality and vegetation cover are good in forest areas, with no evidence of PTE contamination. On the other hand, the TPs have poor fertility and vegetation cover, as well as higher levels of PTE. Human health risk indices obtained for all PTE were lower than 1, indicating a low risk to human health. The results of integrating the different indices suggest that the environmental conditions of the WPs are better than those of the TPs, which are still far from the environmental conditions of native areas. Soil attributes and vegetation development in TPs areas could be enhanced by the incorporation of organic materials and fertilizers and by planting species with phytoremediation potential. Finally, the integrative approach of the different indices proved to be useful in assessing the rehabilitation progress of the areas.

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“…Para posteriormente, poder realizar una zonificación sostenible [51]. Asimismo, [31] se deben aplicar medidas de vigilancia y fiscalización, además de [46] incentivar el proceso de formalización a pequeña y grande escala, [35] debido a que las empresas mineras formales operan bajo la aplicación de políticas legales.…”

Section: Metodologíaunclassified

“…Además, se emplea el mercurio para la obtención del metal [43]. En muchas ocasiones este elemento tóxico se acumula en el agua [37]; por lo que, afecta a las especies acuáticas de flora y fauna [39], lo cual mediante una cadena llega a generar problemas sobre la salud de las poblaciones [35].…”

Section: Metodologíaunclassified

Negative effects of mining conflicts on the Amazon ecosystem. Amazonian Ecosystem. A systematic review between the years 2012-2022

Briceño¹,

Sanchez²,

Rojas³

et al. 2022

Proceedings of the 2nd LACCEI International Multiconference on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Regional Development (LEIRD 202

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Currently, mining conflicts in the Amazonian ecosystems cause negative impacts on biodiversity and society. Therefore, the objective of this review was to know the impacts of mining conflicts in the Amazonian ecosystem, it was developed under the PRISMA methodology approach, which is based on the identification, selection and evaluation of studies related to the topic. We worked with databases such as Dialnet

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Artisanal gold mining in the eastern Amazon: Environmental and human health risks of mercury from different mining methods

Cited by 37 publications

References 46 publications

Mercury Exposure in Munduruku Indigenous Communities from Brazilian Amazon: Methodological Background and an Overview of the Principal Results

Mercury Exposure in Munduruku Indigenous Communities from Brazilian Amazon: Methodological Background and an Overview of the Principal Results

Combining approaches for environmental assessment of rehabilitated gold‐mining areas in the Eastern Amazon

Negative effects of mining conflicts on the Amazon ecosystem. Amazonian Ecosystem. A systematic review between the years 2012-2022

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