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

Abstract

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.

Assessment of potentially harmful elements in floodplain soils and stream sediments in Ile-Ife area, South-western Nigeria

“…Due to expansion of urban settlements, as well as rapid climate changes, there have been increased and frequent flooding, which lead to mobilisation and redistribution of some pollutants in river system and some are deposited along with the sediments flow in the floodplain transfers and storage, causing metal enrichment that may attain pollution status, [13,18,19,21]. Also, activities such as increased use of herbicides, insecticides, building and housing development, vehicular activities, gasoline consumption, hospital consumables, poor waste (domestic and industrial) disposal, acid mine drainage, among others, contribute in no small ways to the enrichment level of PHEs in these geo -media (stream sediments and floodplain soils), [9,25,26,29,49,50,54]. Evidently for some time now data collections relating to effect of urban development to the immediate environment such as soils and sediments have received considerable concern, owning to the fact that enrichment of PHEs have been found in these geo-media and their corresponding health effect have been scientifically found to have correlation to anthropogenic activities rather than geogenic activities, (Jayaraju et.…”

“…In Nigeria, several works have been carried out both on soils and stream sediments in both urban and suburban environments particularly with emphases on the distribution pattern and pollution status of potentially harmful elements in these geologic media [33], Lapworth et al 2012; [9,14,32]. In their findings, it was observed that there is considerable increase in the concentration of PHEs and attributed the sources of enrichment to be associated to urbanisation and its attendant effects.…”

Análisis espacial del riesgo para la salud por exposición a metales pesados en el campo minero Ponce Enríquez, Ecuador

“…Las explotaciones mineras descontroladas son causantes de graves problemas ecológicos debido a la gran cantidad de sustancias contaminantes que se generan, afectando no sólo al entorno minero sino también a las comunidades aledañas [1]- [3]. La liberación de estas sustancias fuera del emplazamiento se produce principalmente por la inadecuada gestión de residuos [4], [5], por las emisiones atmosféricas [6] y por el drenaje ácido de mina (DAM) [6], [7].…”

Environmental and Health Impact of Small-Scale Gold Mining Activities in Ibanda District of Uganda

“…Artisanal miner production numbers are common, considering that most contractors are unlicensed, and even those that are licensed learn to under-proclaim. As a result, the majority of gold mining is done in questionable ways (Awomeso et al, 2017;Basu et al, 2015). The Ugandan government recently included small-scale mining activities in the draft national mining and minerals policy.…”

“…Miniature gold mining leads employment generation, it is associated with ecological and health hazards. Artisanal small-scale gold mining has been acknowledged as one of the major pilots which are accountable for the demolition of the environment (Awomeso et al, 2017). However, the environmental and health impacts of small-scale mining activities have not been carried out in Kicuzi Sub-county, Ibanda District.…”