Cyanide Hazards to Plants and Animals from Gold Mining and Related Water Issues

Eisler, Ronald; Wiemeyer, Stanley N.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9100-3_2

Cited by 96 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Among the aquatic organisms, fish is the most cyanidesensitive with high mortality rate due to the free cyanide concentrations of >20 μg/L (Eisler and Wiemeyer 2004). The toxicity of cyanide on aquatic organisms relies on numerous factors, such as water pH and temperature.…”

Section: Cyanide Levels In the Fish Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human health risk assessment of cyanide levels in water and tuber crops from Kenyasi, a mining community in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana

et al. 2017

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Background: Cyanide is among the most harmful substances on Earth and it is harmful to humans and most aquatic life even at low concentrations. Free, total cyanide levels and other physicochemical parameters were determined in fish, cassava, cocoyam, dam and borehole water samples collected from Kenyasi, Ghana. A total of sixteen (16) that the variation in free cyanide levels was significant (p < 0.05) in the fish, cassava, cocoyam, dam and borehole water samples. Moreover, the hazard index results via ingestion and dermal contact with children are >1, including fish ingestion by an adult. This signifies adverse non-carcinogenic risk. The persistent intake of cassava and cocoyam can probably induce adverse health effects. Conclusions: From the results, it can be concluded that fish, cassava and water samples at Dam 4, Dam 7 and BH1 were not safe for consumption since they recorded values higher than the set limits. Therefore, people are advised not to feed on the cassava product, fish and consume water samples located close to Dam 4, Dam 7 and BH1.

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Section: Cyanide Levels In the Fish Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human health risk assessment of cyanide levels in water and tuber crops from Kenyasi, a mining community in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana

et al. 2017

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“…Generally, artisanal gold miners are affected by numbers of challenges including occupational, environmental and social impacts (Hruschka 2011). The major environmental and health concerns of artisanal and small scale gold mining are elemental mercury emissions and cyanide toxicity with consequent effects on humans, animals, plants and aquatic organisms (Eisler and Wiemeyer 2004;Barreto 2011;Nakazawa et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human health and environmental assessments of small-scale and artisanal mining activities in the Gold City of Ijeshaland, Southwestern Nigeria

et al. 2017

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Background: This study assessed the health and environmental impacts of artisanal gold mining in Ijesha-land, Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria. Fifty-four environmental samples were collected between 2011 and 2012 and analyzed for major, trace and rare earth elements using standard procedures. Samples were collected from surface water (rivers and streams), groundwater, bottom sediments, fish (Tilapia) and aquatic plants (ferns). Data collected were analysed for simple descriptive and inferential statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows (16.0). Human health risk assessment of noncarcinogenic adverse effects of elements in water and fish samples was determined.Results: Higher concentrations of most major and trace elements were found in groundwater than surface water, while rare earth elements (REEs) were more concentrated in groundwater than surface water. Bottom sediment samples showed highest concentrations of Ti, Cs and Eu for major, trace and rare earth elements, respectively. The major and trace elements were most concentrated in the fish guts. The sum of REEs was observed highest in the fish guts (31.83 ± 35.90 µg kg ). The human health risk assessment revealed low hazard quotient and hazard index values less than 1.0 for trace and rare earth elements in environmental samples. Conclusions:The data obtained in this study showed that, the artisanal gold mining activities in the study area may contribute to long term environmental and human health risk.

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“…The rate of glycolysis is increased and the pyruvate reduced to lactate, yielding metabolic acidosis (Salkowski and Penney 1994;Cummings 2004;Eisler and Wiemeyer 2004). No accidental deaths have been recorded in Australia from the use of cyanide in the gold mining industry (Woffenden et al 2008 ).…”

Section: Ecological Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cyanide is toxic to fresh water fish under conditions of low dissolved oxygen (O 2 ) and acidic pH (Eisler and Wiemeyer 2004). It was found that increased water temperatures led to increased susceptibility of aquatic invertebrates to HCN without considering the dose (Smith et al 1979).…”

Section: Toxicity Of Cyanide and Metal Complexes To Wildlife Includinmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toxicity evaluation of copper and zinc cyanide complexes using Euglena gracilis Z and SMZ as an in-vivo model

Al-Saadi¹

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Gold cyanidation is the most used technique worldwide despite cyanide being highly toxic. The reaction of cyanide with metals such as copper and zinc during or after gold recovery builds up moderate and weak metal-cyanide complexes in tailings storage facilities (TSFs) which if not managed may find their way into the environment.Migratory birds and other waterfowl that ingest with the tailings water or waste discharged from cyanidation operations have the potential to cause adverse effects mainly due to the highly toxic free cyanide (HCN + CN -) and free cyanide released from metal-cyanide complexes particularly under acid condition.The International Cyanide Management Code (ICMC) has set 50 mg/L of weak acid dissociable (WAD) cyanide discharge into tailings dam as a protective guideline for birds and biota. However, this guideline value was established based on field observations and is not based directly on scientific toxicological data as identified by NICNAS and this remains a knowledge gap.The toxicity of cyanide and metal-cyanide complexes was assessed using Euglena gracilis strains Z and SMZ. The unique plant-and animal-like properties of Euglena gracilis, and its tolerance to a wide range of pH values including acid pH which is similar to that of the upper gastrointestinal tract of birds where dissociation of metal-cyanide complexes take place, offer a distinct advantage over other algal cells to be selected for this project.Euglena gracilis Z and SMZ strains were exposed to copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, sodium cyanide, copper-and zinc-cyanide complexes mixed species solutions and one tailings sample for 24 h and 48 h. Two methods for the assessment of inhibitory concentration at 50% (IC 50 ) were applied namely an optical density measurement at the absorbance wavelength 610 nm and a modified resazurin assay. The modified resazurin assay provided more robust and reproducible results. Based on a WAD CN molar basis the cytotoxicity data (IC 50 ) for E. gracilis Z in the order of: NaCN (1.24 mg CN/L, 95% CI: 1.03 to 1.5) ~ zinc-cyanide complex mixed species (1.61 mg CN/L, 95% CI:1.3 to 2) > copper-cyanide complex mixed species (4.17 mg CN/L, 95% CI:3.7 to 4.7) and for SMZ cells in the order of NaCN (1.02 mg CN/L, 95% CI:0.91 to 1.1) > zinc-cyanide complex mixed species (2.13 mg CN/L, 95% CI:1.7 to 2.7) > copper-cyanide complex mixed species (5.54 mg CN/L, 95% CI:5 to 6.1), respectively. 2 Further, the chicken was used as a surrogated model for the migratory birds to determine the effects of short-term exposure to sub-lethal doses of sodium cyanide, copper-cyanide complex mixed species, zinc-cyanide complex mixed species and gold mine tailings sample contains less than the ICMC guideline (50 mg WAD CN/L). Based on the CN released it has been found that the toxicity (in chickens) is in the order of: NaCN > zinc-cyanide complex mixed species > copper-cyanide complex mixed species.Calibration of toxicity of NaCN to E. gracilis against chicken showed a good relationship (correlation coefficient R 2 = 0.9...

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Cyanide Hazards to Plants and Animals from Gold Mining and Related Water Issues

Cited by 96 publications

References 43 publications

Human health risk assessment of cyanide levels in water and tuber crops from Kenyasi, a mining community in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana

Human health risk assessment of cyanide levels in water and tuber crops from Kenyasi, a mining community in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana

Human health and environmental assessments of small-scale and artisanal mining activities in the Gold City of Ijeshaland, Southwestern Nigeria

Toxicity evaluation of copper and zinc cyanide complexes using Euglena gracilis Z and SMZ as an in-vivo model

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