Mining is bad for health: a voyage of discovery

Abstract

Mining continues to be a dangerous activity, whether large-scale industrial mining or small-scale artisanal mining. Not only are there accidents, but exposure to dust and toxins, along with stress from the working environment or managerial pressures, give rise to a range of diseases that affect miners. I look at mining and health from various personal perspectives: that of the ordinary man (much of life depends on mined elements in the house, car and phone); as a member of the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health (environmental contamination and degradation leads to ill health in nearby communities); as a public health doctor (mining health is affected by many factors, usually acting in a mix, ranging from individual inheritancegenetic makeup, sex, age; personal choices-diet, lifestyle; living conditions-employment, war; social support-family, local community; environmental conditions-education, work; to national and international constraints-trade, economy, natural world); as a volunteer (mining health costs are not restricted to miners or industry but borne by everyone who partakes of mining benefits-all of us); and as a lay preacher (the current global economy concentrates on profit at the expense of the health of miners). Partnership working by academics with communities, government and industry should develop evidencebased solutions. Employment, health, economic stability and environmental protection need not be mutually exclusive. We all need to act.

The Use of Artificial Neural Networks to Analyze Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollutant Emissions from the Mining and Quarrying Sector in the European Union

“…The last stage involved grouping the EU countries by the volume of gas and air pollutant emissions from the mining and quarrying sector compared to the number of inhabitants of these countries. Such an analysis seems to be perfectly justified also due to the fact that these substances have a very negative impact on the life and health of society throughout the country, not only in mining areas [36,49,79,80].…”

“…Research on greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions are most often considered separately in the context of their impact on the environment [46][47][48], society and its health [49], and economy [50]. On the other hand, studies related to the impact of the mining and quarrying sector on the state of the environment concern various aspects of these phenomena.…”

The Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health (SEGH): building for the future

“…Africa, South East Asia) will help SEGH to keep up with emerging research challenges. Such a move presents an exciting opportunity to increase international collaborations to tackle increasing environmental pressures from anthropogenic activities (Brown et al 2019;Kaninga et al 2019;Olatunji and Afolabi 2019;Rodgers et al 2019;Stewart 2019) that have an impact on human and animal health (Middleton et al 2019). SEGH presents a platform for emerging technologies to identify and measure environmental pathways for contaminants via exposure and hazard assessment, in addition to interests in nutrition through deficiency of essential nutrients and transfer pathways from soil-toplant and onward animal/human health investigations .…”

Injuries during the first hour at work in the U.S. mining industry

“…Mining has remained one of the most dangerous industries, even in modern times 1 . Mining operations range from small‐scale artisanal mining to large‐scale industrial processes and require varied activities that are associated with different physical, chemical, ergonomic, and psychosocial hazards 1‐5 . In the United States, surface or underground mining is broadly categorized into two different types of operations—metalliferous/nonmetal or coal 3 .…”

“…Leading causes for nonfatal injuries in mining include contact with equipment or object, overexertion, transportation, falls, and exposure to harmful substances and the environment 8 . Noise, humidity, and heat are other factors which in of themselves can result in acute and chronic adverse health effects, but also can increase the risk of injury as a result of adversely impacting the psychomotor skills of miners 1,3,9 …”