pollution health risk Articles

Air pollution and health: Do popular portrayals reflect the scientific evidence?

Environmentalists, regulators, health scientists, and journalists are the main purveyors of information on air pollution health risks. Unfortunately, these groups create the appearance that harm from air pollution is much greater and more certain than suggested by the underlying evidence. The incentives in air pollution health research encourage risk exaggeration, because information purveyors ...

May 1, 2006

By Blue Sky Consulting Group
Small-scale gold mining, the environment and human health: an introduction to the Ghana case

This paper introduces a special issue on "Small-scale gold mining, mercury, the environment and human health: perspectives on rural Ghana". The papers presented provide a range of perspectives on the mercury pollution problem in Ghana's small-scale gold-mining sector and reflect on the progress made to date towards resolving it. The aim, in providing fresh insight on the Ghana case, is to ...

May 17, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
Determination of uranium concentration in surface soil samples of Iran

The use of uranium-tipped antitank shells during the Iraq war (2003) caused serious concerns in Iran and the international media over possible contamination of the Iranian environment and consequent long-term health effects. After a shell explosion, uranium is discharged by fire into the air in the form of oxidised particles, which can be dispersed over a radius of several kilometres. Gamma ray ...

Jan. 10, 2007

By Inderscience Publishers
'Fair trade' gold: A key to alleviating mercury pollution in sub-Saharan Africa?

This paper critically assesses the ability of 'Fair Trade' gold to reduce mercury usage in small-scale gold mines through standard setting. It identifies the barriers – both practical and theoretical – that must be overcome to bring such an initiative to fruition. It concludes by questioning the auditing approach, asking whether the tenets of Fair-Trade-discourse of 'partnership' and ...

May 17, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
Policy challenges on mercury use in Ghana's artisanal and small-scale mining sector

Mercury use in Ghana's Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) sector is a growing problem owing to the increasing numbers of people involved, locations of operation, extent of possible contamination of the natural environment and its impact on human health. For over two decades, many local and internationally-coordinated initiatives undertaken to mitigate its harmful effects in ASM communities ...

May 17, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
Potential repercussions of a mercury ban on the artisanal and small-scale gold-mining sector: a viewpoint

The ban imposed on exports of mercury from Europe and North America is a decision made in response to growing recognition that contamination from extensive emissions of the element in developing countries needs to be tackled more proactively. Stemming its flow to Artisanal and Small-scale gold Mining (ASM) – the largest user and emitter of mercury – has been identified as a key objective of the ...

May 17, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
The myth of alternative livelihoods: artisanal mining, gold and poverty

This paper aims to resolve a fundamental policy question: Should international institutions concerned with the environmental hazards produced by artisanal and small-scale gold mining attempt to direct miners into alternative livelihoods, or promote mining as a means of poverty alleviation? It is argued here that gold rushes are forces of economic history undeterred by policy, and that small-scale ...

May 17, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
The Economic Value of Air-Pollution-Related Health Risks in China: A Contingent Valuation Study

The economic value of preventing adverse health effects related to air pollution is estimated using contingent valuation in three diverse locations in China. Values are estimated for three health endpoints: cold, chronic bronchitis, and fatality. Alternative statistical models are tested to study their impact on estimated willingness to pay (WTP) and on the relationship between WTP and respondent ...

Mar. 1, 2006

By Springer-Verlag GmbH
Monitoring environment, health and perception. An experimental survey on health and environment in Flanders, Belgium

The Centre of Expertise for Health and Environment started a biomonitoring campaign at the end of 2001, in Flanders (Belgium). The main purpose of this project, funded by the Flemish government, is to investigate the relationship between environmental pollution and human health. This is done by measuring pollutants and health effects in human beings. Social scientists cooperating with the ...

Feb. 22, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers
The identification and testing of a method for mercury-free gold processing for artisanal and small-scale gold miners in Ghana

A study of the ASM sector of Ghana established the practices and attitudes of gold miners and proposed an alternative to mercury amalgamation. The study showed that miners were aware of health hazards associated with mercury but continued to use it because they knew of no credible alternative. It was realised that any process to replace amalgamation must be very efficient to capture gold around ...

May 17, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
The effect of comminution equipment on gravity gold recovery in small-scale mining operations

As a strategy to improve gold recovery in the small-scale mining industry of Ghana, comminution equipment utilised in grinding was investigated. Morphological studies show that gold particles liberated by hammer mills were globular, disc mills produced cigar-shaped particles, and stamp mills created flaky units. Up to 5% of the gold particles liberated using a disc mill were coated with iron due ...

May 17, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
Lessons to be learnt from epidemiological studies in radiation-exposed people

The research into the cancer risk posed by radioactive pollution played a pilot role in changing our awareness of long-term health damage from invisible pollution of the environment. Most paradigms, concepts and methods of environmental research used today have been developed in the course of those large scale epidemiological studies such as questions relating to latency, type of cancer, genetic ...

Jun. 3, 2005

By Inderscience Publishers
The application of direct smelting of gold concentrates as an alternative to mercury amalgamation in small-scale gold mining operations in Ghana

Mercury is used in small-scale mining to amalgamate gold particles, facilitating their separation from heavy sands. The negative environmental/health-related effects of mercury in mining communities in Ghana and other countries have generated research interest into development of safer alternatives. This study tested direct smelting as an alternative to amalgamation. In laboratory investigations, ...

May 17, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
Connectionist expert systems for analysis of health problems associated with industrial activity and electricity generation systems

Connectionist expert systems (neural networks) have the power to solve structurally ill-defined problems. Health-environmental interactions are inducing types of non-linear system behaviour and are often difficult to study by existing analytical methods. This paper introduces a new way to portray the complex relationship between low level pollution, the health of the population and the risk ...

Sep. 17, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers
Appraising the Global Mercury Project: an adaptive management approach to combating mercury pollution in small-scale gold mining

This paper appraises the initiatives of the Global Mercury Project (GMP); a project designed to minimise the impacts of mercury use in the artisanal and small-scale gold-mining (ASM) sector. The environmental and health impacts of mercury use at ASM sites have local, national and global implications that need to be reconciled with the benefits of poverty reduction and economic opportunity. The ...

May 17, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
Metals in the environment: design of HRA Heavy Metals, an online system for assessing human health risks

HRA Heavy Metals is a program designed for Health Risk Assessment (HRA) by determining human exposure to environmental metals for a specific subject. This online program is used to establish if the presence of metals in the area where the individual inhabits exceeds the safety limits established by the current legislation. The use of HRA Heavy Metals requires information on metal concentrations ...

Dec. 15, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
Treatment of leather industrial wastewater via combined advanced oxidation and membrane filtration

The liming/unhairing operation is among the important processes of the leather industry. It generates large amounts of effluent that are highly loaded with organic hazard wastes. Such effluent is considered one of the most obnoxious materials in the leather industry, causing serious environmental pollution and health risks. The effluent is characterized by high concentrations of the pollution ...

May 23, 2016

By IWA Publishing
Cadmium in soil-plant systems: an overview

High concentrations of cadmium in soils represent a potential threat to human health because it is incorporated in the food chain mainly by plant uptake. The behaviour of cadmium in soils depends on several factors related to both soil and plant characteristics. This paper provides an overview of such factors as well as of the most environmentally friendly in situ soil remediation techniques in ...

Jul. 14, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers
Mercury in fish: a critical examination of gold mining and human contamination in Ghana

This study examines the knowledge of miners, fishermen, fish sellers, and fish buyers regarding the linkages between elemental mercury, methylmercury, fish consumption, and health risks in and around mining areas in Ghana. While findings suggest that a clear grasp of the impacts of mercury on human health is lacking, few potentially polluted fish are consumed in the mining areas. Most customers ...

May 17, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers
SOCRATES: a computerized toolkit for quantification of the risk from accidental releases of toxic and/or flammable substances

A computerised toolkit for quantification of the risk from accident releases of toxic and/or flammable substances is presented. Methodological and procedural steps for quantifying the consequences and the associated risk to health is presented, along with their implementation in a user-friendly computer package. The methodology and the associated toolkit have the capability of integrated risk ...

Sep. 16, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers

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