Mercury Concentrations in Water, Sediments, Soil, and Fish Around Ancestral Afro-Descendant Territories Impacted by Gold Mining in the Cauca Department, Colombia

Caballero-Gallardo, Karina; Palomares-Bolaños, Jenny; Olívero-Verbel, Jesús

doi:10.1007/s11270-022-05779-3

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Samples from the river water [27,52,69,77,78,81] indicated that the mercury content had exceeded the threshold. The same condition was found in the Philippines, Thailand, and Colombia [1,5]. This is also the case for the results of samples taken from humans, including hair, blood, and urine.…”

Section: Lesson Learned From Three Locations Of Illegal Asgmsupporting

confidence: 77%

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Environment Degradation, Health Threats, and Legality at the Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining Sites in Indonesia

Meutia,

Bachriadi,

Gafur

2023

IJERPH

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Artisanal Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) activities, despite offering numerous economic incentives, inflict negative impacts on the environment and public health due to the use of mercury or cyanide. This study aims to compare three ASGM locations in Indonesia in terms of environmental impacts and potential health problems in the community. As part of this research, field surveys at three ASGM illegal locations with different conditions, observations, literature studies, and interviews with the community and stakeholders were conducted. At each of the survey sites, the potential threat to public health due to the use of mercury was determined to be high. Additionally, many of the environmental impacts detected were deemed to have reached a high-alert stage, in some cases even posing a level of extreme danger. Based on these results, it has become clear that a form of mining management which reduces the negative impacts on the surrounding environment and community health is needed. The suggestions put forward in this paper, including the call for greater control of ASGM, may also be applied in other developing countries which suffer from similar problems and conditions.

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Section: Lesson Learned From Three Locations Of Illegal Asgmsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…Environmental and potential health problems caused by ASGM are occurring throughout the world, most notably in developing countries [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. This is particularly the case in Southeast Asia [ 1 ], and most especially in Indonesia, which is regarded as a resource-rich country.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environment Degradation, Health Threats, and Legality at the Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining Sites in Indonesia

Meutia,

Bachriadi,

Gafur

2023

IJERPH

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“…However, restrictions in the consumption of mercury-rich foods can be included in the diets when there is no risk of causing nutritional deficiencies. In this regard, the consumption of carnivorous fish that have shown higher concentrations of mercury should be avoided (33)(34)(35). The exclusion of breast milk in the diet of neonates and young children (8) should not be a generalized option and should only be reserved for cases of severe intoxication, and under supervision of health professionals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selenium-rich food potentially useful to control mercury levels among Afro-Colombians: Towards an intercultural intervention

Díaz,

Palma,

Gamboa

et al. 2023

biomedica

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Introduction. Diet-based interventions may be a culturally acceptable option to decrease mercury levels and thus prevent the adverse effects of this metal on population health. Selenium is an element present in Colombian geology that can act as a chelator, decreasing mercury concentrations in the human body.Objective. To identify potentially useful selenium-rich foods to control the effects of mercury exposure among Afro-Colombians.Materials and methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out with 320 individuals from five municipalities of Chocó. They were asked about the frequency of consumption of selenium-rich foods, and their association with mercury concentrations in hair was estimated with multiple robust regression.Results. Guava, whole wheat flour, strawberries, cow liver, spinach and yeast extract were the foods with higher consumption. Walnuts, whole wheat flour, and yeast extract were identified in multiple robust regression as foods to consider in future interventions.Conclusion. It is proposed that the banana juice, the pineapple colada, the borojó (Borojoa patinoi) sorbet, the cucas, and the enyucado are basic elements for a culturally acceptable intervention.

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“…The data listed in Table 1 provide insights into the distribution of Hg and MeHg across various marine and freshwater environments. There are significant differences between the concentrations of MeHg and THg in open oceans and seas, such as the Atlantic Ocean (Southern Polar Front; 0.93 ± 0.69 ng/L) [41], and highly polluted rivers and estuaries contaminated by anthropogenic activities, such as Cauca River basin (Columbia; 650 ng/L) [42]. Adapted from [37][38][39][40].…”

Section: Biogeochemical Cycling Of Mercury and Methylmercurymentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction of Naturally Occurring Phytoplankton with the Biogeochemical Cycling of Mercury in Aquatic Environments and Its Effects on Global Hg Pollution and Public Health

Gojkovic,

Simansky,

Sanabria

et al. 2023

Microorganisms

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The biogeochemical cycling of mercury in aquatic environments is a complex process driven by various factors, such as ambient temperature, seasonal variations, methylating bacteria activity, dissolved oxygen levels, and Hg interaction with dissolved organic matter (DOM). As a consequence, part of the Hg contamination from anthropogenic activity that was buried in sediments is reinserted into water columns mainly in highly toxic organic Hg forms (methylmercury, dimethylmercury, etc.). This is especially prominent in the coastal shallow waters of industrial regions worldwide. The main entrance point of these highly toxic Hg forms in the aquatic food web is the naturally occurring phytoplankton. Hg availability, intake, effect on population size, cell toxicity, eventual biotransformation, and intracellular stability in phytoplankton are of the greatest importance for human health, having in mind that such Hg incorporated inside the phytoplankton cells due to biomagnification effects eventually ends up in aquatic wildlife, fish, seafood, and in the human diet. This review summarizes recent findings on the topic of organic Hg form interaction with natural phytoplankton and offers new insight into the matter with possible directions of future research for the prevention of Hg biomagnification in the scope of climate change and global pollution increase scenarios.

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Mercury Concentrations in Water, Sediments, Soil, and Fish Around Ancestral Afro-Descendant Territories Impacted by Gold Mining in the Cauca Department, Colombia

Cited by 7 publications

References 35 publications

Environment Degradation, Health Threats, and Legality at the Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining Sites in Indonesia

Environment Degradation, Health Threats, and Legality at the Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining Sites in Indonesia

Selenium-rich food potentially useful to control mercury levels among Afro-Colombians: Towards an intercultural intervention

Interaction of Naturally Occurring Phytoplankton with the Biogeochemical Cycling of Mercury in Aquatic Environments and Its Effects on Global Hg Pollution and Public Health

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