Characterization of inhalation exposure to gaseous elemental mercury during artisanal gold mining and e-waste recycling through combined stationary and personal passive sampling

Abstract

While occupational inhalation exposure to gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) has decreased in many workplaces as mercury is being removed from many products and processes, it continues to be a concern...

Mercury in air and soil on an urban-rural transect in East Africa

“…Detection and quantification limits (LOD and LOQ) were calculated as three and 10 times the standard deviation of the field blanks, respectively, and correspond to 0.26 ng m −3 and 0.86 ng m −3 using the average sampling volume. The LOD and LOQ reported here are comparable to the LODs and LOQs reported by Quant et al , 48 and in the lower range of the LODs and LOQs reported by Snow et al , 11 but higher than those reported by McLagan et al 22 The two duplicate samples showed 6% and 9% deviation. This is comparable to the precision achieved by Quant et al , 48 and at the lower end of precision achieved by McLagan et al 23 using the same type of PAS.…”

“…Moreover, the GEM concentration at the e-waste site in our study was lower than the range of GEM concentrations in ambient air in the vicinity of the Norwegian facility and comparable to ambient air at some distance from it. 11 Overall, the spatial distribution of GEM concentrations in the present study suggests that both general waste and e-waste are sources of GEM. The relatively low levels of GEM around the e-waste handler and municipal waste dumpsite compared to similar sites in industrialized countries could be explained by an overall lower volume of Hg containing products entering the waste stream in Tanzania.…”

“…14 Most data on GEM from sub-Saharan Africa are thus derived from this one location in South Africa, in addition to some studies from ASGM communities in Ghana and Burkina Faso. 11,32,33 Consequently, there are large knowledge gaps regarding GEM levels and emissions in sub-Saharan Africa.…”

“…6 Major anthropogenic sources of primary Hg emissions include fossil fuel combustion, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), metal smelting, cement production, waste incineration, processing of e-waste, and burning of biomass. [7][8][9][10][11] Most of these activities are conducted within urban areas, which are thus important source regions of atmospheric Hg. Hg also has secondary sources, in the form of re-emissions of legacy Hg from contaminated surface reservoirs.…”

Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves

“…Mining operations inevitably cause socio-economic consequences and produce several detrimental disturbances that commonly affect the surrounding environment. However, mining impacts can also have a global reach, as in the case of Hg, causing widespread health concerns for the general population and not only for high-end exposure individuals living in the vicinity of the mine sites (Gyamfi et al, 2021;Snow et al, 2021). Commonly, such impacts are not limited to the mine production phase but may also persist after mine closure and even rehearse over a longer time, if remediation measures are not adequate or absent at all (Monaci et al, 2021;Venkateswarlu et al, 2016).…”