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Biomonitoring of arsenic, cadmium and lead in two artisanal and small-scale gold mining areas in Zimbabwe

People living and working in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) areas are frequently exposed to elemental mercury (Hg), which is used for gold extraction. However, additional exposure to other toxic metals such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) may result from mining-related acti...

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Autores principales: Rakete, Stefan, Moonga, Given, Wahl, Anna-Maria, Mambrey, Viola, Shoko, Dennis, Moyo, Dingani, Muteti-Fana, Shamiso, Tobollik, Myriam, Steckling-Muschack, Nadine, Bose-O’Reilly, Stephan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8741681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34409536
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15940-w
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author Rakete, Stefan
Moonga, Given
Wahl, Anna-Maria
Mambrey, Viola
Shoko, Dennis
Moyo, Dingani
Muteti-Fana, Shamiso
Tobollik, Myriam
Steckling-Muschack, Nadine
Bose-O’Reilly, Stephan
author_facet Rakete, Stefan
Moonga, Given
Wahl, Anna-Maria
Mambrey, Viola
Shoko, Dennis
Moyo, Dingani
Muteti-Fana, Shamiso
Tobollik, Myriam
Steckling-Muschack, Nadine
Bose-O’Reilly, Stephan
author_sort Rakete, Stefan
collection PubMed
description People living and working in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) areas are frequently exposed to elemental mercury (Hg), which is used for gold extraction. However, additional exposure to other toxic metals such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) may result from mining-related activities and could be ingested via dust, water or food. In these areas, only limited biomonitoring data is available for toxic metals other than Hg. In particular, data about the exposure to As, Cd and Pb is unavailable for the Zimbabwean population. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional study in two ASGM areas in Zimbabwe to evaluate the internal exposure to these metals. In total, urine and blood samples from 207 people that identified themselves as miners were collected and analysed for As and Cd in urine as well as Pb in blood by GF-AAS. Median levels (interquartile ranges in μg/l) of As and Pb were 9.7 μg/l (4.0, 18.5) and 19.7 μg/l (12.5, 34.5), respectively. The 25th percentile and the median for Cd were below the limit of detection (0.5 μg/l); the 75th percentile was at 0.9 μg/l. The results were compared to reference values found for the general population in the USA and Germany, and a significant number of participants exceeded these values (As, 33 %; Cd, 27 %; Pb, 32 %), indicating a relevant exposure to toxic metals. Although not representative for the Zimbabwean population, our results demonstrate that the exposure to toxic metals is relevant for the public health in Zimbabwe and requires further investigation. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-15940-w.
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spelling pubmed-87416812022-01-20 Biomonitoring of arsenic, cadmium and lead in two artisanal and small-scale gold mining areas in Zimbabwe Rakete, Stefan Moonga, Given Wahl, Anna-Maria Mambrey, Viola Shoko, Dennis Moyo, Dingani Muteti-Fana, Shamiso Tobollik, Myriam Steckling-Muschack, Nadine Bose-O’Reilly, Stephan Environ Sci Pollut Res Int Research Article People living and working in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) areas are frequently exposed to elemental mercury (Hg), which is used for gold extraction. However, additional exposure to other toxic metals such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) may result from mining-related activities and could be ingested via dust, water or food. In these areas, only limited biomonitoring data is available for toxic metals other than Hg. In particular, data about the exposure to As, Cd and Pb is unavailable for the Zimbabwean population. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional study in two ASGM areas in Zimbabwe to evaluate the internal exposure to these metals. In total, urine and blood samples from 207 people that identified themselves as miners were collected and analysed for As and Cd in urine as well as Pb in blood by GF-AAS. Median levels (interquartile ranges in μg/l) of As and Pb were 9.7 μg/l (4.0, 18.5) and 19.7 μg/l (12.5, 34.5), respectively. The 25th percentile and the median for Cd were below the limit of detection (0.5 μg/l); the 75th percentile was at 0.9 μg/l. The results were compared to reference values found for the general population in the USA and Germany, and a significant number of participants exceeded these values (As, 33 %; Cd, 27 %; Pb, 32 %), indicating a relevant exposure to toxic metals. Although not representative for the Zimbabwean population, our results demonstrate that the exposure to toxic metals is relevant for the public health in Zimbabwe and requires further investigation. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-15940-w. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021-08-19 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8741681/ /pubmed/34409536 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15940-w Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Research Article
Rakete, Stefan
Moonga, Given
Wahl, Anna-Maria
Mambrey, Viola
Shoko, Dennis
Moyo, Dingani
Muteti-Fana, Shamiso
Tobollik, Myriam
Steckling-Muschack, Nadine
Bose-O’Reilly, Stephan
Biomonitoring of arsenic, cadmium and lead in two artisanal and small-scale gold mining areas in Zimbabwe
title Biomonitoring of arsenic, cadmium and lead in two artisanal and small-scale gold mining areas in Zimbabwe
title_full Biomonitoring of arsenic, cadmium and lead in two artisanal and small-scale gold mining areas in Zimbabwe
title_fullStr Biomonitoring of arsenic, cadmium and lead in two artisanal and small-scale gold mining areas in Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed Biomonitoring of arsenic, cadmium and lead in two artisanal and small-scale gold mining areas in Zimbabwe
title_short Biomonitoring of arsenic, cadmium and lead in two artisanal and small-scale gold mining areas in Zimbabwe
title_sort biomonitoring of arsenic, cadmium and lead in two artisanal and small-scale gold mining areas in zimbabwe
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8741681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34409536
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15940-w
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