The Pollution Blog

Solving Pollution Problems, Saving Lives

Posts Tagged cheap pollution solutions

Toxic Mercury Exposure: Huge Increase in U.S., 500,000 Children At Risk

May 9

Posted by admin in World's Worst Pollution Problems | 4 Comments

Chronic mercury exposure in the U.S. has risen dramatically, not only in numbers of people affected but also in amounts.

A study by Professor Dan Laks found that mercury was detected in only 2% of the blood samples collected over a seven-year period between 1999-2006, but it was present in 30% of samples taken in the one year between 2005-2006.  Furthermore, mercury levels of blood rose from 0.33 µg/L to 0.39 µg/L over the seven-year period, and seemed to increase with age, offering strong evidence of mercury accumulation in the blood.

Another study from Mahaffey et al. estimates that 300,000-600,000 American children born in 1999-2000 had elevated risks of neruo-developmental disorders with blood organic mercury levels of >5.8 µg/L based on the number of births and adult female blood organic mercury levels.

The Price of Gold

But why the huge increase?

The answer may lie in the rising price of gold.

Small scale gold mining is the biggest source of mercury emissions. The Mercury Watch database estimates that mercury releases from small scale gold mining have increased roughly 30% to 1320 tonnes per year in 2011 due to increased gold mining driven by the high price of gold and high poverty rates in countries where it is practiced (70 countries – see map)

Mercury:  A Global Pollutant

And the thing with mercury is that it is a truly global pollutant because it travels so well. 40% of mercury released by artisanal gold mining goes directly into the atmosphere and circulates around the globe before landing in oceans and rivers, contaminating fisheries worldwide. The remainder (about 600 tonne) goes into local waterways and soils but much of this may later also escape to the atmosphere.  So not only are miners and their families (including some 600,000 child gold miners!) at risk from mercury, but also children and pregnant women half a world away. [Read our earlier post, All That Glitters, for a solution]

Thanks to Blacksmith Technical Advisory Board member Dr. Kelvin Telmer, the executive director of the Artisanal Gold Council, who shared this information with us, and the video below:

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Video of gold miners in Indonesia – Mercury: The Burning Issue

Jan 14

Posted by admin in Solutions, Uncategorized, World's Worst Pollution Problems | 9 Comments

Amalgam of mercury and gold

Amalgam of mercury and gold

I first blogged about the toxic connection between gold and mercury back in December in my post All That Glitters, when the price of gold reached a record high.  Back then, we asked you to join our December Holiday Challenge and you came through – so far we have raised enough money to buy nearly 3,000 additional mercury-recapture retorts. Thank you. Now I have some video to show you so you can see how those retorts are making a difference.

Watch Mercury: The Burning Issue (Part 1) and Mercury The Burning Issue (Part 2) now.

We have been working with a local NGO in Indonesia to introduce these simple, low-cost retorts that gold miners can use to recapture mercury that is burned off in the gold mining process.  We took our cameras out to the mines in Kalimantan to talk to the miners themselves   One man explained that before the retorts,  “my head feels like it’s about to burst and it gets hard to breathe.” His only wish is for a bigger retort so he can process larger quantities.

Now that the price of gold is still high — I continue to see those ads on television asking you to mail in your gold for cash — it is a good time to stop and think where your gold comes from.  At least a quarter of the world’s total gold supply comes from artisanal gold mining in countries like Indonesia. These are small, very labor intensive operations. Often, men, women and kids work together. To understand what it is like on the ground, this video shows how the miners extract the gold – crushing the ore, mixing it with mercury, then burning the mercury off with a propane torch to recover the gold or adding cyanide to release the mercury.  Either way, mercury leaks into the air and environment, and gets absorbed into the ground, contaminating the water. One village of about 2000 people we visited had more than a dozen gold processing sheds.  The miners there have built their own retort but they are only 60% efficient, meaning 40% of the toxic mercury escapes into the air, poisoning everyone in the village.

Slowly we are  starting to make a difference.

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Potty Training Pigs and Other Great Solutions

Dec 14

Posted by admin in Solutions | 2 Comments

I was going to write about Copenhagen and “climategate” today … but then I came across a curious piece of news about potty training pigs! It seems a farmer in Taiwan has trained his pigs to use a litter box, like cats. The result – less pollution resulting in cleaner rivers! I love this simple idea. That’s one farmer thinking outside the box and making a big difference. And that, to me, is the essence of pollution cleanup in much of the developing world today. We are always looking for innovative, cheap methods that can be easily replicated because cost is almost always the biggest factor.

In India, we are using worms to literally “eat” toxins out of polluted soil. In Philippines, we are using a local mineral to absorb pollutants out of industrial waste and sludge that would otherwise pollute rivers and waterways. In Indonesia, we are encourging the use of a simple retort that can be easily built for just $5 to recapture toxic mercury released during the gold mining process. At other sites we are using cow dung and molasses to clean up pollution.

As you can see, we already have a multitude of simple solutions at hand to fight various forms of pollution. All we need is the resources and commitment to implement them.

In Taiwan, authorities are encouraging other pig farmers to follow suit. I am guessing that any resources committed to teaching farmers this pig potty training skill will offer a return much bigger than the investment.

– Richard

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