ArticleThe Science of the total environment2010
Occupational and environmental mercury exposure among small-scale gold miners in the Talensi-Nabdam District of Ghana's Upper East region.
Article in The Science of the total environment, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 115 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Epidemiology of Working Life: Reorganizing Occupational Health Science Around Work-Structured Exposure Systems.American journal of industrial medicine · 2026Article
- Soil contamination assessment of a 19th-century abandoned Sb-Au mine in northern Portugal.Environmental geochemistry and health · 2026Article
- Interaction of mercury exposure and DNA methylation with sustained attention in children in a novel analysis of epigenetic susceptibility.Environmental epigenetics · 2025Article
- Artisanal Gem Mining in Brazil: A Source of Genotoxicity and Exposure to Toxic Elements.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Mercury Exposure in Artisanal Mining: Assessing the Effect of Occupational Activities on Blood Mercury Levels Among Artisanal and Small-Scale Goldminers in Ghana.Biological trace element research · 2022Article
- Differential fat accumulation in early adulthood according to adolescent-BMI and heavy metal exposure.New directions for child and adolescent development · 2022Article
- Related health risk assessment of exposure to arsenic and some heavy metals in gold mines in Banmauk Township, Myanmar.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Mercury (Hg) use and pollution assessment of ASGM in Ghana: challenges and strategies towards Hg reduction.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Review
- Mercury exposure in relation to sleep duration, timing, and fragmentation among adolescents in Mexico City.Environmental research · 2020Article
- Mercury Exposure Among Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Miners in Four Regions in Uganda.Journal of health & pollution · 2020Article
- Mercury levels in human hair in South India: baseline, artisanal goldsmiths and coal-fired power plants.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2019Article
- Assessment of Total Mercury in Hair, Urine and Fingernails of Small-Scale Gold Miners in the Amansie West District, Ghana.Journal of health & pollution · 2019Article
- Geochemical characterization of soil samples from gold mining areas using PIXE spectroscopy.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2019Article
- Proof of concept for a passive sampler for monitoring of gaseous elemental mercury in artisanal gold mining.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- A comparison of licensed and un-licensed artisanal and small-scale gold miners (ASGM) in terms of socio-demographics, work profiles, and injury rates.BMC public health · 2017Article
- Pulmonary function and respiratory health of rural farmers and artisanal and small scale gold miners in Ghana.Environmental research · 2017Article
- Exposure of Small-Scale Gold Miners in Prestea to Mercury, Ghana, 2012.The Pan African medical journal · 2016Article
- Essential Indicators Identifying Chronic Inorganic Mercury Intoxication: Pooled Analysis across Multiple Cross-Sectional Studies.PloS one · 2016Article
- Understanding the Social Context of the ASGM Sector in Ghana: A Qualitative Description of the Demographic, Health, and Nutritional Characteristics of a Small-Scale Gold Mining Community in Ghana.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Mercury use in small-scale gold mining is ubiquitous across Ghana but little is known about the extent to which such activities have contaminated community residents and miners. Here, occupational exposures to elemental mercury (via urine sampling) and dietary exposures to methylmercury (via hair sampling) were assessed among 120 participants recruited from a mining community located in the Talensi-Nabdam District of Ghana's Upper East region during summer 2009. More than one-fifth of the participants had moderately high levels of urinary mercury (>10μg/L) and 5% had urine mercury levels that exceeded the WHO guideline value of 50μg/L. When participants were stratified according to occupation, those active in the mining industry had the highest mercury levels. Specifically, individuals that burned amalgam had urine mercury levels (median: 43.8μg/L; mean ± SD: 171.1±296.5μg/L; n=5) significantly higher than median values measured in mechanical operators (11.6μg/L, n=4), concession managers/owners (5.6μg/L, n=11), excavators that blast and chisel ore (4.9μg/L, n=33), individuals that sift and grind crushed ore (2.2μg/L, n=47), support workers (0.5μg/L, n=14), and those with no role in the mining sector (2.5μg/L, n=6). There was a significant positive Spearman correlation between fish consumption and hair mercury levels (r=0.30) but not with urine mercury (r=0.18) though further studies are needed to document which types of fish are consumed as well as portion sizes. Given that 200,000 people in Ghana are involved in the small-scale gold mining industry and that the numbers are expected to grow in Ghana and many other regions of the world, elucidating mercury exposure pathways in such communities is important to help shape policies and behaviors that may minimize health risks.
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