Environmental Geochemistry Research and Engineering Laboratory, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Alenza 4, E-28003 Madrid, Spain.
Environmental Geochemistry Research and Engineering Laboratory, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Alenza 4, E-28003 Madrid, Spain.
Chemosphere. 2014 Aug;108:183-9. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2014.01.035. Epub 2014 Feb 15.
Colombia is one of the largest per capita mercury polluters in the world as a consequence of its artisanal gold mining activities. The severity of this problem in terms of potential health effects was evaluated by means of a probabilistic risk assessment carried out in the twelve departments (or provinces) in Colombia with the largest gold production. The two exposure pathways included in the risk assessment were inhalation of elemental Hg vapors and ingestion of fish contaminated with methyl mercury. Exposure parameters for the adult population (especially rates of fish consumption) were obtained from nation-wide surveys and concentrations of Hg in air and of methyl-mercury in fish were gathered from previous scientific studies. Fish consumption varied between departments and ranged from 0 to 0.3 kg d(-1). Average concentrations of total mercury in fish (70 data) ranged from 0.026 to 3.3 μg g(-1). A total of 550 individual measurements of Hg in workshop air (ranging from <DL to 1 mg m(-3)) and 261 measurements of Hg in outdoor air (ranging from <DL to 0.652 mg m(-3)) were used to generate the probability distributions used as concentration terms in the calculation of risk. All but two of the distributions of Hazard Quotients (HQ) associated with ingestion of Hg-contaminated fish for the twelve regions evaluated presented median values higher than the threshold value of 1 and the 95th percentiles ranged from 4 to 90. In the case of exposure to Hg vapors, minimum values of HQ for the general population exceeded 1 in all the towns included in this study, and the HQs for miner-smelters burning the amalgam is two orders of magnitude higher, reaching values of 200 for the 95th percentile. Even acknowledging the conservative assumptions included in the risk assessment and the uncertainties associated with it, its results clearly reveal the exorbitant levels of risk endured not only by miner-smelters but also by the general population of artisanal gold mining communities in Colombia.
哥伦比亚是世界上人均汞污染最严重的国家之一，这主要是由于其手工采金活动造成的。为了评估这一问题对健康造成的潜在影响的严重程度，我们在哥伦比亚拥有最大黄金产量的 12 个省（或地区）进行了概率风险评估。风险评估中包括两种暴露途径：吸入元素汞蒸气和摄入受甲基汞污染的鱼类。成人（特别是鱼类食用率）的暴露参数来自全国范围的调查，而空气中的汞浓度和鱼类中的甲基汞浓度则来自之前的科学研究。各地区的鱼类食用量有所不同，范围在 0 至 0.3 公斤/天。鱼类中总汞的平均浓度（70 个数据）范围在 0.026 至 3.3 微克/克。总共使用了 550 个车间空气中汞的个体测量值（范围从<DL 到 1 毫克/立方米）和 261 个室外空气中汞的测量值（范围从<DL 到 0.652 毫克/立方米），以生成用作计算风险的浓度项的概率分布。在所评估的 12 个地区中，与食用受汞污染的鱼类相关的危险系数（HQ）分布中，除了两个地区之外，其余地区的 HQ 中位数都高于 1 的阈值，第 95 个百分位数的范围从 4 到 90。在接触汞蒸气方面，本研究中包括的所有城镇的普通人群 HQ 的最小值都超过了 1，而矿工-冶炼工燃烧汞齐的 HQ 则高出两个数量级，达到第 95 个百分位数的 200。即使考虑到风险评估中包含的保守假设和相关不确定性，其结果也清楚地表明，不仅矿工-冶炼工，而且哥伦比亚手工采金社区的普通人群都面临着极高的风险。
