Malm O
Laboratório de Radioisótopos Eduardo Penna Franca, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, CCS, UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, 21941-000, Brazil.
Environ Res. 1998 May;77(2):73-8. doi: 10.1006/enrs.1998.3828.
Amalgamation has been used for more than 4500 years in mining processes. Mercury has been extensively used in South America by Spanish colonizers for precious metal recovery. It is estimated that between 1550 and 1880, nearly 200,000 metric tonnes of mercury was released to the environment. During the present gold rush, Brazil is first in South America and second in the world in gold production (with 90% coming from informal mining or garimpos). At least 2000 tonnes of mercury has been released to the environment in the present gold rush. From the mid 1980s, environmental research has been carried out in impacted Amazon rivers, later followed by human exposure studies. The river basins studied were the Tapajós, Madeira, and Negro, but also some man-made reservoirs and areas in central Brazil. The analyses mainly involved sediments, soil, air, fish, human hair, and urine. The results show high variability, perhaps related to biological diversity, biogeochemical differences in the river basins, and seasonal changes. High mercury values also occur in some areas with no known history of gold mining. The results available document a considerable impact on environmental mercury concentrations and frequent occurrence of human exposure levels that may lead to adverse health effects.
汞齐化在采矿过程中的使用已有4500多年历史。西班牙殖民者在南美洲广泛使用汞来回收贵金属。据估计，在1550年至1880年期间，有近20万吨汞排放到了环境中。在当前的淘金热中，巴西的黄金产量在南美洲排名第一，在世界排名第二（其中90%来自非法采矿或淘金点）。在当前的淘金热中，至少有2000吨汞排放到了环境中。自20世纪80年代中期以来，人们对受影响的亚马逊河流域进行了环境研究，随后开展了人体暴露研究。所研究的流域包括塔帕若斯河、马德拉河和内格罗河，以及巴西中部的一些人工水库和地区。分析主要涉及沉积物、土壤、空气、鱼类、人体毛发和尿液。结果显示出很大的变异性，这可能与生物多样性、流域内的生物地球化学差异以及季节变化有关。在一些没有已知金矿开采历史的地区也出现了高汞值。现有结果证明了对环境汞浓度有相当大的影响，以及人体暴露水平频繁出现，这可能会导致不良健康影响。
