Illegal gold miners in French Guiana: a neglected population with poor health

Douine, Maylis; Mosnier, Émilie; Hingrat, Quentin Le; Charpentier, Charlotte; Corlin, Florine; Hureau, Louise; Adenis, Antoine; Lazrek, Yassamine; Niemetsky, Florence; Aucouturier, Anne-Laure; Demar, Magalie; Musset, Lise; Nacher, Mathieu

doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4557-4

Cited by 94 publications

(144 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Legal exploitation is more industrial. The proportion of these two mining statuses varies greatly from one country to the other (Table 1) [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Section: Gold Mines In the Amazon: Context And Health Impact Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this context, the disease burden is heavy for people working in the gold mining sector. The active gold miner population is estimated at 800,000 persons in the Amazon (Table 1), to which must be added people who gravitate around them such as logisticians, cooks, commercial traders, or gold miners' families [6,11,15]. Health facilities are rare or even absent not only from illegal sites, but also in legal mines [].…”

Section: Gold Mines In the Amazon: Context And Health Impact Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Malaria in Gold Miners in the Guianas and the Amazon: Current Knowledge and Challenges

et al. 2020

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Purpose of Review Following Paraguay and Argentina, several countries from the Amazon region aim to eliminate malaria. To achieve this, all key affected and vulnerable populations by malaria, including people working on gold mining sites, must be considered. What is the situation of malaria in these particular settings and what are the challenges? This literature review aims to compile knowledge to answer these questions. Recent FindingsThe contexts in which gold miners operate are very heterogeneous: size and localization of mines, links with crime, administrative status of the mines and of the miners, mobility of the workers or national regulations. The number of malaria cases has been correlated with deforestation (Brazil, Colombia), gold production (Colombia), gold prices (Guyana), or location of the mining region (Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana). The burden of malaria in gold mines differs between territories: significant in Guyana, French Guiana, or Venezuela; lower in Brazil. Although Plasmodium vivax causes 75% of malaria cases in the Americas, P. falciparum is predominant in several gold mining regions, especially in the Guiana Shield. Because of the remoteness from health facilities, self-medication with under-the-counter antimalarials is frequent. This constitutes a significant risk for the emergence of new P. falciparum parasites resistant to antimalarial drugs. Summary Because of the workers' mobility, addressing malaria transmission in gold mines is essential, not only for miners, but also to prevent the (re-)emergence of malaria. Strategies among these populations should be tailored to the context because of the heterogeneity of situations in different territories. The transnational environment favoring malaria transmission also requires transborder and regional cooperation, where innovative solutions should be considered and evaluated.

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“…Legal exploitation is more industrial. The proportion of these two mining statuses varies greatly from one country to the other (Table 1) [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Section: Gold Mines In the Amazon: Context And Health Impact Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gold Mines In the Amazon: Context And Health Impact Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Malaria in Gold Miners in the Guianas and the Amazon: Current Knowledge and Challenges

et al. 2020

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“…Statistical analysis concerning mercury exposure and hematological effect was reported in 17 studies as follows: 11 were mean difference (Student's t-test; Wilcoxon) 12,22,23,24,42,43,44,45,46,47,48 ; eight (two data not shown) were correlation coefficient r (Pearson; Spearman) 12,22,23,24,43,44,49,50 ; three were regression coefficient β (linear models) 51,52,53 ; two (one data not shown) were prevalence 49,54 and one was odds ratio (data not shown) 48 . The results reported for mean difference were: four studies evaluated anemia and two did not find difference (p = 0.05 and p = 0.183) 42,48 and other two found it (p = 0.016 and p < 0.05) 43,47 ; one study found difference for leukopenia and neutropenia (p < 0.05) 46 ; five studies analyzed lymphocytes and three did not find difference (p not informed) 22,23,24 and one did find (p < 0.05) 12 ; one study evaluated polycythemia and did find difference (p < 0.05) 45 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One found positive association for neutrophilia and basophilia (β = 1.38, 95%CI: 0.11; 2.65 and β = 0.04, 95%CI: -0.03; 0.11) 51 . For prevalence, one study reported 22% (95%CI: 18.0; 25.9) for anemia 54 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human exposure to mercury and its hematological effects: a systematic review

Vianna

Matos²,

Jesus

et al. 2019

Cad. Saúde Pública

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Mercury is a metal found in the environment from natural and anthropogenic sources. It is highly toxic to ecosystems and living beings. Most human exposures come from ingestion of contaminated seafood, outgassing from dental amalgam or occupational exposure (e.g. gold mining), among other cases. Large populations are exposed to mercury, making it a very important issue from the public health perspective. Adverse health effects are commonly seen in the nervous system, but every organ is a potential target, such as the bone marrow. The main goal of this study was to assess the available evidence on human exposure to mercury and its hematological effects. A search strategy was constructed, including key terms (MeSH, text word and equivalents) for querying 2 repositories of master dissertation and PhD thesis (Fiocruz/ARCA and University of São Paulo) and 4 different electronic databases: BVS/ LILACS, MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus and TOXLINE/NIH, for articles published from 1950 to February 2018. There was no language restriction and a tool (EPHPP) was used to assess the quality of included studies. According to pre-established criteria, 80 studies were retrieved, all of them observational (48 case reports, 24 cross-sectional, 6 case series and 2 cohorts), comprising 9,284 people. Despite the fact that most exposed ones (6,012) had normal blood cell count and mercury hematological effects did not seem very usual (1,914 cases: 14 severe and 29 deaths), three studies reported association (β) for anemia, lymphopenia, neutrophilia and basophilia. We concluded that the gathered information pointed to mercury hematotoxic effects, some of them may be serious and even fatal.

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“…Economic activities such as overexploitation of fishing grounds (Hutchings 2000), intensive nickel or gold mining (e.g. Greenland, New Caledonia or French Guiana (Douine et al 2017)) jeopardise the health of key ecosystems and people and are generating conflict. Natural and anthropogenic climatic changes put additional pressures on ecosystems and biodiversity (Thomas et al 2004) as they are expected to increase risks of diseases, challenge vegetation sensitive to temperature increases, accelerate coral bleaching (Heron et al 2016) and increase extreme weather events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hotspots of biodiversity and ecosystem services: the Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union

Sieber¹,

Borges²,

Burkhard³

2018

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The obligations of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 create a need for mapping and assessment of the state of biodiversity, ecosystems and their services in all European member states. Europe's nine Outermost Regions (ORs) and 25 Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) are mainly islands, scattered around the globe. These territories contain unique flora and fauna and encompass diverse ecosystems, from coral reefs to rainforests. These highly diverse ecosystems provide multiple relevant ecosystem services from local to global scale. To date, the ecosystem services concept has so far received little attention in European ORs and OCTs. Therefore, our aims were (1) to analyse the current state of ecosystem services mapping and assessment in Europe's overseas territories, (2) to identify knowledge gaps in the context of ecosystem service research and application and (3) to provide recommendations for future research and policy directions to fill these gaps. We conducted a systematic review of scientific literature for each of the ORs and OCTs, screening 1030 publications. The analysis resulted in 161 publications referring to ES mapping and assessment, of which most were conducted in the European Caribbean spots in terms of ecosystem service mapping and assessment and that, despite many biodiversity studies referring to species' abundance, little has been published on ecosystem services. Our systematic review highlights theknowledge lacking on dealing with invasive species, which pose major threats to native island biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem services. Further, it discusses knowledge gaps in (1) translation of information on island biodiversity and ecosystem functions into ES; (2) geographical coverage of mapping studies in most ORs and OCTs; (3) the lack of standardised approaches and integrated assessments to map, assess and value ecosystem services. Based on these results, future research and policy priorities could be adapted in order to focus on filling these gaps. To overcome current environmental policy challenges, it is crucial to address the ongoing decline in biodiversity, rising climatic and anthropogenic pressures on ecosystems and to maintain a sustainable ES flow to safeguard human well-being. Ultimately, ES mapping and assessment efforts will form the knowledge base for wellinformed decision-making to protect Europe's vulnerable overseas areas.

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Illegal gold miners in French Guiana: a neglected population with poor health

Cited by 94 publications

References 40 publications

Malaria in Gold Miners in the Guianas and the Amazon: Current Knowledge and Challenges

Malaria in Gold Miners in the Guianas and the Amazon: Current Knowledge and Challenges

Human exposure to mercury and its hematological effects: a systematic review

Hotspots of biodiversity and ecosystem services: the Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union

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