Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Human exposure and risk assessment associated with mercury contamination in artisanal gold mining areas in the Brazilian Amazon

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Mercury (Hg) contamination is an issue of concern in the Amazon region due to potential health effects associated with Hg exposure in artisanal gold mining areas. The study presents a human health risk assessment associated with Hg vapor inhalation and MeHg-contaminated fish ingestion, as well as Hg determination in urine, blood, and hair, of human populations (about 325 miners and 321 non-miners) from two gold mining areas in the Brazilian Amazon (São Chico and Creporizinho, Pará State). In São Chico and Creporizinho, 73 fish specimens of 13 freshwater species, and 161 specimens of 11 species, were collected for total Hg determination, respectively. The hazard quotient (HQ) is a risk indicator which defines the ratio of the exposure level and the toxicological reference dose and was applied to determine the threat of MeHg exposure. The mean Hg concentrations in fish from São Chico and Creporizinho were 0.83 ± 0.43 and 0.36 ± 0.33 μg/g, respectively. More than 60 and 22 % of fish collected in São Chico and Creporizinho, respectively, were above the Hg limit (0.5 μg/g) recommended by WHO for human consumption. For all sampling sites, HQ resulted from 1.5 to 28.5, except for the reference area. In Creporizinho, the values of HQ are close to 2 for most sites, whereas in São Chico, there is a hot spot of MeHg contamination in fish (A2—São Chico Reservoir) with the highest risk level (HQ = 28) associated with its human consumption. Mean Hg concentrations in urine, blood, and hair samples indicated that the miners group (in São Chico: urine = 17.37 μg/L; blood = 27.74 μg/L; hair = 4.50 μg/g and in Creporizinho: urine = 13.75 μg/L; blood = 25.23 μg/L; hair: 4.58 μg/g) was more exposed to mercury compared to non-miners (in São Chico: urine = 5.73 μg/L; blood = 16.50 μg/L; hair = 3.16 μg/g and in Creporizinho: urine = 3.91 μg/L; blood = 21.04 μg/L, hair = 1.88 μg/g). These high Hg levels (found not only in miners but also in non-miners who live near the mining areas) are likely to be related to a potential hazard due to exposure to both Hg vapor by inhalation and to MeHg-contaminated fish ingestion.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akagi H (1998) Studies on mercury pollution in the Amazon, Brazil. Glob Environ Res 2:193–202

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Akagi H, Nishimura H (1991) Speciation of mercury in the environment toxicology. In: Suzuki T, Imura N (eds) Advances in Mercury. Plenum Press, New York, pp 53–76

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Akagi H, Kinjo Y, Branches F, Malm O, Harada M, Pfeiffer WC, Kato H (1994) Methylmercury pollution in Tapajos river basin, Amazon. Environ Sci 3:25–32

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bell ZG, Lovejoy HB, Vizena TR (1973) Mercury exposure evaluations and their correlation with urine mercury excretions. 3. Time-weighted average (TWA) mercury exposures and urine mercury levels. J Occup Med 15(6):501–508

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bidone ED, Castilhos ZC, Cid de Souza TM, Lacerda DL (1997) Fish contamination and human exposure to mercury in the Tapajós River Basin, Pará State, Amazon, Brazil: a screening approach. Bull Environ Cont Toxicol 59:194–201. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-3975-5_2

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bruggeman WA (1982) Hidrophobic interactions in the aquatic environment. In: Hutzinger O (ed) The handbook of environmental chemistry, vol 2. Spring-Verlag, Germany, p 205

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Castilhos ZC, Bidone ED, Lacerda LD (1998) Increase of the reference human exposure to mercury through fish consumption due to gold mining at the Tapajos river region, Amazon. Bull Environ Cont Toxicol 6:202–209. doi:10.1007/s001289900749

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castilhos ZC, Rodrigues-Filho S, Rodrigues APC, Viilas-Bôas RCV, Siegel S, Veiga M, Beinhoff C (2004) Mercury contamination in fish from gold mining areas in the Brazilian Amazon and human health risk assessment. In: 7th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant, Book of Abstracts (CD-Room), Ljubliana (Eslovênia)

  • Castilhos ZC, Rodrigues-Filho S, Rodrigues APC, Viilas-Bôas RCV, Siegel S, Veiga M, Beinhoff C (2006) Mercury contamination in fish from gold mining areas in Indonesia and human health risk assessment. Sci Total Environ 368:320–325. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2006.01.039

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cesar RG, Egler S, Polivanov H, Castilhos Z, Rodrigues AP (2011) Mercury, copper and zinc contamination in soils and fluvial sediments from an abandoned gold mining area in southern Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Environ Earth Sci 64:211–222

  • Correia J, Cesar RG, Marsico E, Diniz GTN, Zorro MC, Castilhos ZC (2014) Mercury contamination in alligators (Melanosuchus niger) from Mamirauá Reservoir (Brazilian Amazon) and human health risk assessment. Environ Sci Poll Res 21:13522–13527. doi:10.1007/s11356-014-3282-0

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Engström K, Ameer S, Bernaudat L, Drasch G, Baeuml J, Bose-O’Reilly S, Broberg K (2013) Polymorphisms in genes encoding potential mercury transporters and urine mercury concentrations in populations exposed to mercury vapor from gold mining. Environ Health Perspect 121(1):85–91. doi:10.1289/ehp.1204951

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire C, Ramos R, Lopez-Espinosa MJ, Díez S, Vioque J, Ballester F, Fernández MF (2010) Hair mercury levels, fish consumption, and cognitive development in preschool children from Granada, Spain. Environ Res 110(1):96–104. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2009.10.005

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hacon S, Yokoo E, Valente J, Campos RC, Silva VA, Menezes ACC (2000) Exposure to mercury in pregnant women from Alta Floresta—Amazon Basin, Brazil. Environ Res 84(3):204–210. doi:10.1006/enrs.2000.4115

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Harari R, Harari F, Gerhardsson L, Lundh T, Skerfving S, Strömberg U, Broberg K (2012) Exposure and toxic effects of elemental mercury in gold-mining activities in Ecuador. Toxicol Lett 213(1):75–82. doi:10.1016/j.toxlet.2011.09.006

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Krenkel P (1971) Report on international conference on environmental mercury contamination. Water Res 5:1121–1122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodrigues-Filho S, Maddock JEL (1997) Mercury pollution in two gold mining areas of the Brazilian Amazon. J Geoch Expl 58:231–240

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rodrigues-Filho S, Castilhos, ZC, Santos RLC, Yallouz AV, Nascimento FMF, Egler SG (2004) Environmental and health assessment in two small scale gold mining areas—Indonesia—Sulawesi and Kalimantan. CETEM's Technical Final Report to UNIDO-Reserved. 211 pp

  • Santos EOS, Jesus IM, Brabo ES, Loureiro ECB, Mascarenhas AFS, Weirich J, Câmara VM, Cleary D (2000) Mercury exposures in riverside Amazon communities in Pará, Brazil. Environ Res 84(2):100–107. doi:10.1006/enrs.2000.4088

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schulz C, Angerer J, Ewers U, Kolossa-Ghering M (2007) The German Human Biomonitoring Commission. Int J Hyg Environ Health 210:373–382

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Skerfving S (1973) Mercury in fish—some ecological considerations. Food Cosmet Toxicol 10:543–556

    Google Scholar 

  • Slot C (1965) Plasma creatinine determination. A new and specific Jaffe reaction method. Scand J Clin Lab Inv 17:381–387

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Steckling N, Boese-O'Reilly S, Gradel C, Gutschmidt K, Shinee E, Altangerel E, Badrakh B, Bonduush I, Surenjav U, Roider R, Sakamoto M, Sepai O, Drasch G, Lettmeier B, Morton J, Jones K, Siebert U, Hornberg C (2011) Mercury exposure in female artisanal small-scale gold miners (ASGM) in Mongolia: an analysis of human biomonitoring (HBM) data from 2008. Sci Total Environ 409(5):994–1000. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2010.11.029

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tsuji JS, Williams PRD, Edwards MR, Allamneni KP, Kelsh MA, Paustenbach DJ, Sheehan PJ (2003) Evaluation of mercury in urine as an indicator of exposure to low levels of mercury vapor. Environ Health Perspect 111(4):623–630. doi:10.1289/ehp.5717

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ullrich SM, Tanton TW, Abdrashitova SA (2001) Mercury in the aquatic environment: a review of factors affecting methylation. Crit Rev Environ Sci Technol 31(3):241–293

  • U.S.EPA - United States Environmental Protection Agency (1989) United States Environmental Protection Agency: risk assessment guidance for Superfund. Vol I: human health evaluation Manual, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • US EPA - United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2014). IRIS—Integrated Risk Information System. http://www.usepa.gov/iris. Accessed 10 May 2014

  • WHO – World Health Organization (1990) Environmental health criteria 101: methylmercury. World Health Organization, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO – World Health Organization (1991) Environmental health criteria 118. Inorganic mercury. International Program on Chemical Safety. World Health Organization, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Yagev Y (2002). Eating fish during pregnancy: risk of exposure to toxic levels of methylmercury. http://www.motherisk.org/prof/updatesDetail.jsp?content_id=934. Accessed 10 May 2014

Download references

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the fishermen Mr. Leandro, Mr. Jararaca, and Mr. Irmão Chagas, who kindly helped us to collect all of these Amazonian fish. This study was supported by UNIDO.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Mineral Technology, CETEM/MCTI, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Zuleica Castilhos & Roberto Villas-Bôas

  2. Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (CDS), University of Brasilia, UnB, Brasília, DF, Brazil

    Saulo Rodrigues-Filho

  3. Department of Geography, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Ricardo Cesar

  4. Department of Geochemistry, Fluminense Federal University, UFF, Niterói, RJ, Brazil

    Zuleica Castilhos & Ana Paula Rodrigues

  5. Evandro Chagas Institute, Belém, PA, Brazil

    Iracina de Jesus, Marcelo Lima, Kleber Faial, Antônio Miranda, Edilson Brabo & Elisabeth Santos

  6. United Nations Industrial Development Organization, UNIDO, Vienna International Centre, Vienna, Austria

    Christian Beinhoff

Authors
  1. Zuleica Castilhos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Saulo Rodrigues-Filho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ricardo Cesar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ana Paula Rodrigues
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Roberto Villas-Bôas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Iracina de Jesus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Marcelo Lima
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Kleber Faial
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Antônio Miranda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Edilson Brabo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Christian Beinhoff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Elisabeth Santos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zuleica Castilhos.

Additional information

Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Castilhos, Z., Rodrigues-Filho, S., Cesar, R. et al. Human exposure and risk assessment associated with mercury contamination in artisanal gold mining areas in the Brazilian Amazon. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 11255–11264 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4340-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4340-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation