IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i4p2081-d748204.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mercury Exposure and Its Health Effects in Workers in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) Sector—A Systematic Review

Author

Listed:
  • Kira Taux

    (Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany)

  • Thomas Kraus

    (Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany)

  • Andrea Kaifie

    (Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany)

Abstract

Gold is one of the most valuable materials but is frequently extracted under circumstances that are hazardous to artisanal and small-scale gold miners’ health. A common gold extraction method uses liquid mercury, leading to a high exposure in workers. Therefore, a systematic review according to the PRISMA criteria was conducted in order to examine the health effects of occupational mercury exposure. Researching the databases PubMed ® , EMBASE ® and Web of Science TM yielded in a total of 10,589 results, which were screened by two independent reviewers. We included 19 studies in this review. According to the quantitative assessment, occupational mercury exposure may cause a great variety of signs and symptoms, in particular in the field of neuro-psychological disorders, such as ataxia, tremor or memory problems. However, many reported symptoms were largely unspecific, such as hair loss or pain. Most of the included studies had a low methodological quality with an overall high risk of bias rating. The results demonstrate that occupational mercury exposure seriously affects miners’ health and well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Kira Taux & Thomas Kraus & Andrea Kaifie, 2022. "Mercury Exposure and Its Health Effects in Workers in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) Sector—A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-34, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:4:p:2081-:d:748204
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2081/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2081/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mozhgon Rajaee & Brisa N. Sánchez & Elisha P. Renne & Niladri Basu, 2015. "An Investigation of Organic and Inorganic Mercury Exposure and Blood Pressure in a Small-Scale Gold Mining Community in Ghana," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-19, August.
    2. Paul Schutzmeier & Ursula Berger & Stephan Bose-O’Reilly, 2016. "Gold Mining in Ecuador: A Cross-Sectional Assessment of Mercury in Urine and Medical Symptoms in Miners from Portovelo/Zaruma," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Carrillo-Maldonado, Paul & Arias, Karla & Zanoni, Wladimir & Cruz, Zoe, 2024. "Local socioeconomic impacts of large-scale mining projects in Ecuador: The case of Fruta del Norte," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jia, Zhenzhen & Tiwari, Sunil & Zhou, Jianhua & Farooq, Muhammad Umar & Fareed, Zeeshan, 2023. "Asymmetric nexus between Bitcoin, gold resources and stock market returns: Novel findings from quantile estimates," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Niladri Basu & Elisha P. Renne & Rachel N. Long, 2015. "An Integrated Assessment Approach to Address Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Ghana," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-16, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:4:p:2081-:d:748204. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.