Mercury threat from mining seen in north west

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56524380

Mercury threat from mining seen in north west
By Gaulbert Sutherland
Stabroek News,
Thursday, July 12th 2007

There is a threat of mercury contamination from mining in three
villages in the North West District, a study has found, and many
persons in those communities are unaware of the risks.

According to results of the assessment, which was conducted in 2005,
there were "significant levels of mercury contamination among the
population examined in the three communities since many individuals had
mercury levels within them that were above the guideline value for
mercury levels in humans". The study utilized the guideline value set
by the World Health Organization (WHO) for humans stated as 10 parts
per million (ppm).

Mercury is widely employed in the purification of gold and its safe use
has been a bone of contention between the mining industry and the state
for many years. The use of retorts to capture mercury vapour has been
long urged by regulatory agencies. If the vapour is not trapped it
enters the food chain and mercury accumulates.

The results were presented at an Institute of Applied Science and
Technology (IAST)/World Wildlife Fund (WWF) workshop held at the
Demerara Mutual Insurance Company boardroom yesterday on the Mercury
Impact Assessment on Gold Mining Activities. The objectives of the
study were to determine the level of mercury poisoning and
contamination within the human population and the environment and also
to improve educational awareness among the population as it regards
mercury pollution. It was conducted in three communities namely
Arakaka, Port Kaituma and Matthew's Ridge in the North West District.
Two expeditions during the dry and rainy seasons were undertaken and
samples from the physical environment including water and fish and
human hair were taken to be analyzed for the chemical. The sample
locations were selected depending on use by the residents. The persons
involved were required to fill out a questionnaire and workshops were
held in all the locations. Over 2/3 of the respondents from the two
expeditions conducted were involved in the use of mercury.

Presenting the situation analysis, Lana Lawrence of the IAST stated
that "mercury contamination is prevalent in the physical and human
environment of the locations examined in the North West District. They
also show that the level of mercury contamination in the communities
examined was significant both in the wet and dry season". It was felt
that the high levels of the chemical could be attributed to the mining
industry and more needs to be done to eliminate or control the use of
mercury.

Lawrence said that it was discovered that while there was some general
knowledge of the negative impact of mercury, few persons know about the
symptoms associated with mercury exposure. During the workshops held,
she stated, videos were shown and the effects of mercury on human
health was highlighted while mercury-free techniques in mining were
discussed.

Meanwhile, revealing the findings for water she stated that on the
first trip 11 samples were taken with one testing higher than the WHO
guideline value of 0.001ppm and the overall results did not
conclusively state contamination by mercury. On the second trip
however, all the 24 samples taken exceeded the guideline value. It was
noted that the latter samples were taken in the dry season.

Regarding fish, the results from the first trip revealed that 29%
tested over the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)
guideline value of 0.5ppm while on the second expedition 37% had levels
of mercury higher than the guideline value. Twenty-one fish
representing seven species were tested on the first trip while 90 fish
representing 23 species were tested on the second expedition. Lawrence
noted that for both expeditions there was no clear relationship between
mercury contamination and the different species of fish, the feeding
habits of the fish, scaled versus non-scaled and the body parts of the
fish.

She revealed that some persons for various reasons did not consent to
having hair from their head tested and therefore chest hair and hair
from their arms were used. Of these, 7 out of 23 persons tested in the
first trip had higher levels of mercury than the WHO guideline value of
10ppm while for the second expedition 18 out of 22 persons had levels
higher than the guideline value. The majority of the persons were
miners and over two-thirds were involved in the use of mercury. She
related that on the first trip one Port Kaituma businessman's test
revealed that he had higher levels of mercury than a gold merchant.

Meanwhile, regarding the social aspect, Lawrence said that many of the
respondents did not engage in safe mercury use practices, many were
exposed to it through consumption of fish and water, most lacked
general awareness of the toxic nature and symptoms associated with
mercury exposure and most did not believe that their illnesses were
attributed to such exposure. Regarding the workshops held she said that
attendance varied among the communities. Of the target group - miners -
most did not attend and in most cases the majority who attended was not
directly involved in mining. The three communities were chosen because
a high percentage of residents were involved in the mining industry.

Overall constraints were the low number of samples collected, the
difficulty in analyzing samples and limited accommodation. Testing of
the samples was done at the IAST laboratory.

Mad Hatter

Meanwhile, making his presentation Rickford Vieira of the WWF stated
that the use of mercury by miners was attractive because it was easy to
use, very accessible and cheap and miners were not aware of the risks.
Recalling the long use of the mercury he stated that the Mad Hatter was
probably perceived as mad because he suffered from high levels of
mercury contamination absorbed from the mercury in the hat. He added
that all the hatters of long ago were probably 'mad' resulting from
their use of mercury in their trade. He declared that the majority of
the miners in the Guianas were Brazilians and they made use of the
chemical a lot. In Brazil itself, he explained, the use of mercury in
mining was banned and the miners from that country who entered Guyana
were not the best of the lot and did not practise safer techniques. He
stated that local miners copied their methods and noted that there were
"simple things" that miners can do to recycle mercury while outlining
some alternative methods through which gold can be extracted. These
include the use of a retort and industrial bleach.

He noted that mercury is naturally occurring too and accumulates in
animals higher up in the predatory chain. Giving an example of how
mercury is absorbed, he cited the example of persons from Gunn's Strip
in southern Guyana, where persons had high levels of mercury though
mining was generally not done in that area. This, he said was because
the people consumed large amounts of fish daily and also because of the
practice of slash-and-burn, the burning of the vegetation which
releases mercury into the atmosphere. He pointed out however, that
"mining is the major culprit in high mercury levels". He noted that
symptoms of high mercury levels were similar to that of malaria, which
is prevalent in the interior. He noted that mercury contamination is a
global problem adding that it was occurring in dolphins in the Arctic,
which was thought to be uncontaminated and it was traced directly to
coal-power plants in China. He said that Guyana has one of the better
policies regarding the use of the mercury but more can be done, adding
that not enough emphasis is being placed on the issue.

Meanwhile, it was felt that the current management system of monitoring
mercury use in gold mining and enforcement of laws relating to the
chemical was weak and is in need of strengthening. It was also noted
that despite some significant strides there still remained
organizational challenges and concerns including poor enforcement by
government agencies, low level of compliance among miners, low level of
awareness among miners on environmental issues, poor knowledge of the
level and distribution of pollution effects, dissatisfaction in local
communities over the level of consultation and lack of awareness of
safe mercury use practices among others.

Recommendations made included that miners should be presented with the
findings of reports related to gold mining in their communities in a
timely manner and should be involved in the development of follow-up
studies and there should be a separate department that focuses
exclusively on small scale mining issues.

During lively discussions, it was noted that there was a great
difficulty in reaching out to miners because of their mobility while it
was also revealed that the effects of mercury contamination did not
show up until years later.

A representative of the miners association said that given the history
of mercury use in the mining industry he did not think that mercury was
a problem.

The GENCAPD project several years ago had addressed the matter of the
safe use of mercury in mining.

Some years ago a similar study had shown elevated mercury levels in
residents of the interior village of Isseneru.